NAVAL POWERS' POLICIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 4

NAVAL POWERS' POLICIES

NO COMMON VIEW Reviewing the proceedings of the London Naval Conference before any decisions had been reached, a contributor to the ''.Fortnightly Review" - remarked that Ihe five Powers held no common view as to the most important of all the factors affecting their problem—by what is the national .strength at sea of a country governed? "There is a group (France, Italy, and Japan), which thinks armaments should be. adequate, and no more than adequate, for security," he wrote. "Another (the United States) which thinks its armaments must bo more than adequate; and a. third (Britain) which thinks inadequacy is sufficient. How can any bodies or delegates come to an agreement when their aims are so radically different?" Criticising the policy announced by the British Government, the writer says:—"lt is indeed difficult to discover the logic of a. policy which consists in measuring strongth by the strength of a Power war with whom* it is declared with a wealth of emphasis, is not within l.ho__ region «f practical possibility. The British Government remarks in its memorandum that in determining its naval strength, the chances of war breaking out .must be estimated 'because unless this is done fleets will be built which will never be of any use .... and wiil at best be a waste of national resources.' This however, while it may furnish a reason for having a fleet at all or having none, affords no guidance! whatever as' to what the size of the fleet, if one there is to be, shall be. The fact of the existence of a. fleet presupposes the possibility of war or nothing else. The possibility being thus b/ hypothesis admitted, it follows that'if that, deplorable catastrophe should occur, the fleet which, in the Government's own words, is 'committed to keep the highway of the seas open to trade and communication,', must be, adequate to perform that duty. If the unexpected—war—does occur, if the judgment, of the statesmen, as lo its probability should prove wrong, and the Empire should find itself faced with a sudden crisis, it will then be too late to bring the fleet up to the .strength needed." [ ' ■ ' .