BRITAIN’S NAVY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 71, 17 December 1928, Page 6

BRITAIN’S NAVY

NOT BEING BUILT AGAINST AMERICA VULNERABILITY OF FOOD ROUTES (Rec. December 17, 12.5 a.m.) New York. December 15.

A reflection from the Senate debate on the Cruiser Bill and the Kellogg Pact occurred to-day in a debate before the Foreign Policy Association, a private body including many wellknown Americans. Admiral Plunkett arose and asked: “Against what nations is Britain building? They are building against some nation; now. who is it?”

Dr. J. Martin, of British birth but of American citizenship, said: “England is in dread as to whether if in fulfilment of the League of Nations obligations she will be brought into conflict with the Navy of the United States. Britain is not building against the United States. She is building slowly against an undefined enemy because she sees her food lines so vulnerable that another European nation may put her in jeopardy.” Admiral Plunkett then asked whether it would not “be a good thing for Britain to come forward and offer the freedom of the seas.” Other Americans spoke against the Cruiser Bill, declaring that the United States, with her industrial and mechanical wealth, actually suffered from no naval disparity.