NAVAL TREATY

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 145, 19 May 1930, Page 2

NAVAL TREATY

AMERICAN OPPOSITION. EVIDENCE BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.-—Copyright.) Received May 17, 1 p.m. WASHINGTON. May 16. Rear Admiral Bristol, chairman. or the executive connnitce of the Navy General Board, expressed opposition to the London Naval Treaty’s division o the United' States cruisers into six anrl eight inch gun types, when giving evi dence before the Naval Affairs Committee of the Senate to-day. Admiral Bristol said that tho board unanimously favoured building 10,UUiJ ton eight-inch cruisers exclusively. He agreed witli the board, and believed that his opinion represented tho consensus of naval opinion. He claimed that the treaty established bad precedents, and he questioned the wisdom of them. j , . The treaty did not give the United States parity. American interests required tho maintenance of a 5-3 ratio with Japan, declaring that, “in any difficulties with Japan the United States would have to carry the campaign into Japan, because the best defence is offence. , Under questioning, Admiral Bristol admitted that Japan would not bring war to the United States. The United States would be safe, but it would lose the war. Admiral Hilary Jones bitterly condemned the London Naval Treaty. lie criticised ihe limitation of cight-inch-gun cruisers and the division into six and eight-inch-gun vessels. With this type, he argued the treaty would not only give Britain an advantage over the United States, but also would enable Japan’s 70 per cent ratio actually to mean 100 per cent, under the present conditions', and would handicap the United States in the event of war in the Pacific. Admiral Jones criticised the treaty’s “escalator clause’’ intimating that circumstances might cause Britain to take advantage of it and build beyond the treaty limits. He stressed the need for greater strength in the Pacific. Admiral Pratt, giving evidence before the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, defended the division of cruisers and declared his satisfaction with the treaty.