* * * * Britain's Naval Programme On Tuesday, the
' King George V,' the first battleship built by Great Britain for fourteen years, was launched on the Tyne. She is of 35,000 tons, mounting ten 4-inch guns in three' turrets, and sixteen 52-inch guns in -eight- turrets. Her speed is described as " appreciably faster " than that of the 'Nelson ' and the ' Rodney,' the last two battleships built ; this is asserted to mean that the King George V ' has a speed of 3o knots. She is the first of five battleships of the same class laid down under the 1937 programme ; the 1938 programme authorises two 40,000 ton battleships, the ' Lion ' and the Temeraire,' to be completed in 1943 ; one of them will be laid down immediately on the berth vacated by the ' King George V.' Two more of the ' Lion' class are autho- rised by the 1939 programme. The building of these nine new battleships emphasises the immense expansion of our naval forces which is taking place ; the launching of the first of them is a welcome sign that the delay in carrying out the programme of construction is being overcome. In one sense this expansion also reveals the critical nature of the present period ; potential aggressors may well decide that if they are to attack at all it must be now and not later.
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