Evening star., 1940-02-14
Naval Appropriations

A4oSA1lS tAAdt ~ ID llO IcSpCCtcI VI
budgets, even If they have to do with
national defense. the House Appro-
priations Committee has reported to
the House sharply curtailed naval
appropriation bill. In spite OF a $111,-
100000 slash in the amount requested
by the Navy Department for regular
and special expenditures during the
next fiscal year, however, the bill
calls for an appropriation more than
$51 100000 in excess of the Navy's
allotment for the current year. As it
stands, the bill will provide money
with which to start nineteen new
combatant ships and five auxiliaries.
Included are limited funds with
which to begin plans-but not actual
construction-of two superbattleships
which the committee believes should
be of such formidable proportions as
to make them the superior of any
dreadnoughts now being built by
other powers. Originally it had been
the intention of the Navy to pattern
these capital ships after the two
45,000-ton battleships now under con-
struction, but strong sentiment has
developed at the Capitol for much
larger vessels, tonnages of $1,000 or
more having been suggested by some
members of the House Naval Affairs
Committee. Navy officials have indi-
Gated their interest in the larger
ships and have testified that studies
now are being made to determine the
desirability of building such giant
warships. In addition to the money
for projecting on paper the two bat
tleships, the bill would grant funds
for starting two heavy cruisers. an
aircraft carrier, eight destroyers, six
submarines and five auxiliary vessels.
Although the Navy Department
had requested funds for additional
new construction, it was the conten-
ton of the committee that the work
to be appropriated for in the bill
would tax to capacity the present
shipbuilding facilities of the coun-
try. Drastically cut, moreover, was
the Navy's budget for new airplanes.
Instead of the 576 planes urged by
the department, the committee rec
commended funds for only 352 planes,
of which 305 would be for replace
ment of obsolete craft. ~..
Curtailment of the naval budget
follows closely the action of the
House Naval Affairs Committee in
trimming the Navy's six-year 81 ,300,-
100000 emergency expansion pro-
gram to two-year one to cost $685.
100000. This committee argued that
the ten per cent expansion thus
authorized would be all that existing
yards could handle, apparently over
looking the fact that authorizations
are not appropriations and that a
six-year program, with its oppor-
tunity for long-view planning of
ships, is more likely to result in econ
omies than short-term program.
On the credit side of the ledger,
the Appropriations Committee rec
commended an allotment of one mil
lion dollars for a start on the much
discussed harbor improvements at
Guam, $7,500,200 for aeronautical
research, fifty thousand dollars for
experiments with autogiros and hell
copters and one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for a new non-
rigid lighter-than-air ship for train
ing purposes. Last year Congress
denied funds for the Guam project
on the extraordinary grounds that
it might offend Japan. The refusal
apparently resulted from a misun-
derstanding regarding the nature of
the proposed works at Americas
island outpost in the Pacific.
In considering the report of the
House committee, Congress should
keep in mind always that while econ
omy in domestic affairs is highly
commendable, caution should be the
watchword in welding the economy
ak on appropriations urgently sought