NAVAL AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 20

NAVAL AFFAIRS.

A TACIT AGREEMENT.

UNITED STATES AffD BRITAIN.

NOW WORKING TOGETHER ?

(By TAUL iIALLOX.)

WASHINGTON, May 25

The suggestion will be scoffed officially, but tlie United States now has the nearest thing to an international alliance since 177.fi. Nothing has been put on i paper, but that means little. Signed agreements do not amount to much in these days of international lawlessness. Ail exchange of military confidences and a similarity of interests and purposes are far more trustworthy. With such things are the current inside naval relations between the United States and Britain seemingly sealed. It started a few years ago when a necessity developed for naval co-opera-tion in the Far East. At that time an entirely unofficial understanding was reached to prevent the Americans and British fleets from running into each other in the dark on the Pacific. The unbinding relationship grew at the London Naval Conference and has been further expanded by developments in Europe during the last few weeks. The men behind the mast here generally know more than they ever did about British naval plans and purposes—and vice versa. It has never been officially disclosed, but the recent British demand for twenty-five new destroyers was no surprise here. The British told our delegates at the London Naval Conference they were going to need more destroyers (and more cruisers) to meet the Italian naval threat in submarines and fast cruisers. Tlie United States Ambassador at large, Mr. Norman Davis, and Admiral Stanley told them privately and informally it was all right with us. We had our reasons. - Our destroyer tonnage is now eighty thousand in excess of the old expiring treaty limit. Britain's is forty thousand over. Now, cither of us could get around the already obsolete treaty by invoking the escalator clause of the new London agreement. Or we could both scrap our excess tonnage one minute before midnight on December 31, and reinstate it one minute later. _ (The old treaty merely promised reduction of destroyer tonnage to 150,000 any time before the treaty expires this year, and nobody has reduced -yet.) But use of either of those devices individually by any one nation woukl entail serious responsibilities. Japan scrapped the old treaty and resisted the new, but she would not overlook any such opportunity to howl. The two major nations, working together, can accomplish a mutually desirable and practical purpose, and not care who howls. And this is not the only important naval matter upon which Britain and the United States have worked together lately. Do not overlook the fact that ! the new naval bill, now clearing Congress, carried funds for twelve new destroyers and six submarines, as well as money for continuing construction of twenty destroyers and four submarines now building. Red Herrings. Frequent secret calls ivhicli the British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Lindsay, has been paying to the State Department are not supposed to mean anything. The explanation privately offered by both American and British sources is that he has merely been trying to save a British subject from the hangman's rope. The i doomed man, who has thus caused Sir Ronald more anxiety than ho ordinarily devotes to an important diplomatic matter, was Alexander Mackay, convicted of kidnapping a sheriff in a celebrated California gaol break. Sir Ronald wanted to get him a new trial, but failed. Frequently callers at the White House drop a small red herring in the form of a truthful announcement concerning a minor matter they have discussed with the President, in order to conceal a far more important matter which was discussed. It happens less frequently at the State Department, but it happens. ! The British are having a hard time making up their minds what to do about Mussolini. They are more fearful of him than of any of the other autocratic regimes in Europe. They believe one should be smashed to curb the rest and their choico is Mussolini, rather than Hitler. The only thing they are. not sure about is how to do it. One thing you may expect is a new defensive alliance in the Mediterranean encompassing all the small Powers who have a grievance against II Duce. War Debts Problem. One thing Britain and the United States have not worked out together, however, is war debts. You may have noticed that the recent Franco-British overtures slipped out of the headlines fast. The reason is, as everyone here knows, these grand proposed offers will probably amount to about a dime on the dollar or less. Our diplomats also have reason to suspect that the offer is bait for American entry into a redecorated League of Nations. And even if the diplomats would like to consider such a proposition they know very well that Congress would not.