AMERICA'S NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 301, 20 December 1922, Page 5

AMERICA'S NAVY.

SURE OF DEFEAT IN WAR.j I ADMIRAL SIMS' WARNING. HAMSTRUNG AND NAILED DOfWN. (By Cable.-Press Associa Lion.—Copyright.) '(Received 9.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, December 10. Admiral .Sims, in the course of a speech to-day, said that the Unift-d States had been hamstrung in the Pacific and nailed down in the Atlantic. Any nation can take the* Philippines and Guam without the United States being able to prevent it. He declared that because Congress would not appropriate the money to defend those islands, and Japan was fortifying her islands, it was considered the best way out was to have both sides quit. The- deficiency in the American naval personnel was such that ships allowed under the 5-5-3 ratio were only 70 per cent manned, t'.ie consequence being that the navy was sure to he defeated in time of war. The United States was also deficient in smaller ships and in fa«t merchant marine. He warned the nation that the only way to get a fair deal in foreign trade was to have a sufficient foreo to gain respect, because the nations were not honest with each other.— (\ and N.Z. Cable.)