1910-12-07 FOREIGN FIRMS AND SHIPBUILDING ORDERS

London Times, 7 December 1910, p. 5: THE NEW RUSSIAN NAVY. FOREIGN FIRMS AND SHIPBUILDING ORDERS. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) ST. PETERSBURG, DEC. 6. According to the Novoe Vremya, the Ministry of Marine is lending its contenance to a scheme initiated by Krupps to take over the ironworks at Mariupol and equip them with armour plant. French and British shipyards see in this move a preliminary to securing immediate orders. The money which is presumably to be borrowed in London and Paris for the needs of a great Russian Navy would thus find its way into German pockets. The Novoe Vremya asks what will become of the £1,000,000 voted for the improvement of the Izhora armour works if the Germans are encouraged to open a rival establishment in Southern Russia, and inquires whether it is politic thus to give the Germans a footing in the Black Sea shipyards, which may sooner or later have to compete against Turco-German constructions.

As the Ministry of Marine has repeatedly declared that no more orders will be placed in Germany, the Novoe Vremya’s assertions, if accurate, betray a mysterious change in Admiralty views. The unpleasant experience connected with the attempt to give Messrs. Blohm and Voss, of Hamburg, a preference over the foreign firms who presented designs for Dreadnoughts appears to have been forgotten.

I hear that the Volunteer Fleet has, for some occult reasons, placed an order for steamships in Sweden without considering the offers of British firms.