NAVAL POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 9

NAVAL POLICY

EMPIRE DEFENCE PROBLEM

(From "The Port's" Reprasentative.i; VANCOUVER, May 11.

A five-year defence plan for Canada involving an outlay of £15,000,000 i year' for that period, was discussed by, the Liberal Caucus at Ottawa, during the last session of Parliament, and summarily rejected, according to political writers, in subsequent disclosures. Tha discussion synchronised with ■ the announcement of the United Kingdom's £1,500,000,000 defence scheme, ■ and. with plans, elsewhere in the Empire, for easing the huge burden ion the Motherland. . '■ •' ■; ■■ Whether the amount of the proposed appropriation was .suggested by-" tha British Government, as is generally believed, or by Mr.- Mackenzie; King is not disclosed, but the volume of oppor sition, from French Canadian.and;other elements in the House, was so great that the vote was reduced to £7,000,000 and the plan put into operatiort for one year only. Simultanepusly, the.Prime Minister, in-,a' public statement, indicated that; neither *c nor .any'■of his colleagues, would commit Canada, at the Empire Conference, to any further expenditure for Empire' defence.;. v . A comprehensive naval policyin tha, Pacific is believed to be part of tha new British defence scheme, in which Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Straits Settlements would participate. Its terms,,presented to the Empire Conference, are not, likely to ba publicly discussed until they are submitted to the, Parliaments of the Dominions; ■ >"'' '■" ■ .- ■_ Three objectives would appear to ba sought in the new orientation of Bri* tish policy in. the Pacific:— , \ 1. Restraint: of Japanese ambitions. 2. Protection of British, interests, in the event of war between' Japan and Soviet Russia. . ' <.

3. A British-American, economic entente, as an aidtoPresidentßoosevelt'i world peace formula^ ■, , The last-named, motive, winch appears on the surface to be somewhat oonfusing, emanates from ■ the President's desire for an understanding with Great Britain. The visit to Washington of Sir Walter Runciman and Mr. Mackenzie King, > and the "economic good-will" tour of the United States by. Sir George ft Paish, are seßn as contributing to the mollification of antagonism in the United States: towards what might be considered an entanglement "outside the American continent.

That Americans are growing mora suspiciousl of Japanese activities in tha Pacific .is demonstrated by the .revulsion of popular feeling after the recent spy trials, and Japan's expressed determination to repeat last year's experiment of placing huge floatingcanning factories, just'outside Alaska territorial waters, thereby intercepting the salmon on their way to the-spawning grounds, and depleting an existing rich. American source'of fish supply- That Japan recently urged the formation of a Japanese-American . corporation to share these salmon resources only added to the bitterness engendered by what is popularly denounced- as. an affront to international amity.