BIG BURDEN ON NATIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLII, Issue 9375, 2 November 1921, Page 5

BIG BURDEN ON NATIONS.

THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE. (Per Press Association, Copyright.) WASHINGTON, October 31. The State Department has announced that the four American delegates to Armaments Conference will he given. Ambassadorial rani thus plac- ' ing them on an equal footing with' . the foreign delegates. : Senator C. A. Swanson, a Democratic member of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, m a speec'i, said that Gottemment expenditure, unless greatly reduced, would certainly lead to further industrial distress, which < would finally culminate m universal bankruptcy. The mad international competition m armaments -could only be ended by the success of "the Washington Conference. The United States Government was taxing the people ; up to 10 per cent, of their total income. This was more than three times the taxation of 1910. The people would cease to labour when thus< e forcibly deprived of the fruits of their toil. The United States should recognise the dependence of England on her access to *the sea alike m times of peace and war, for the sustenance of her people and the continuation of her industries, but America should insist that this gave her no . right of naval supremacy or that it placed the commerce of the world under her control or dictation.