COMMAND OF SEAS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 12 November 1927, Page 5

COMMAND OF SEAS

ESSENTIAL TOl BRITAIN.

PROTECTION OF TRADE ROUTES. 'PROBLEM IN DISARMAMENT. BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, Nov. 10. In the House of Lords, Lord Webster We my ss drew attention to the breakdown of the Geneva Naval Conference. He said: ‘‘'Our forces are in no wise too great to secure our trade routes and a reduction would be a risk no Government would accept. We are bound by the Declaration of Paris (an international agreement covering shipping and neutrality during war time), to which neither the United States nor Japan are signatories. “iCominand of the seas is essential to Britain. That, once lost, our resistance to an enemy would be broken down and we would be cut oft' from the world, incapable of maintaining ourselves. This does not apply in the case of any other country, but so long as we adhere to the Declaration of Paris our geographical position is lie asset to us. War, when once it has broken out, must be prolonged. ’ ’ Lord Weinyss thought, however, in certain circumstances naval armaments might be reduced without jeopardising our sea communications. Tie believed thst ultimately there would not be peace through disarmament, but disarmament through peace. 'Lord Stanhope, replying, said the British Fleet was one of the greatest foundations of the peace of the world. It would be impossible to withdraw from the Declaration of Paris without admitting a dangerous precedent tnat a party could withdraw from a treaty at anv time. The only other way would be by consent of the other signatories or by inducing the Assembly of the League of Nations to revise the re-con-struction of the treaty as inapplicable under Article 19 of the covenant. Lord Haldane thought the Rt. Hon. W. C. Bridgeman had spoken at Geneva too much as a seaman.. Reduction of armaments should be discussed on a wider basis than mere naval efficiency. He wished that before the conference the Government had been aided by the Committee of Imperial Defence, not the Admiralty, and had set. out. fully our plain necessities. It was a mistake to go to Geneva without,. preliminary agreement, but me position was not hopeless. We must continue our efforts in the direction of disarmament, which was the only hope of bringing about large economies. Lord Balfour said the abolition of the Declaration of Paris would not be to our interest. Moreover, diplornaticallv it was wholly and utterly impossible. It was a difficult and delicate subject and Parliamentary discussion might lead to discord, not harmony. He did" not believe the Naval Powers ’ differences of opinion were irreconcilable, but it. was difficult to bring about, a reconciliation. Without the British Fleet Frances’s resistance to Germany in the Great War could not have lasted a vear.