BIGGER NAVY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22987, 15 March 1938, Page 11

BIGGER NAVY

AMERICA DECIDES MENACE OF DICTATORS MOBAL STANDAEDS GONE ATTITUDE OF CONGRESS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright i (Received March 14, 7.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 13 The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune says that regardless of Britain's stand White House has definitely decided to invoke the escalator clause of the London Naval Treaty and is prepared unilaterally to remove the present size limit of battleships within a few days.

The Germans' seizure of Austria has made the Government more determined than ever to build a powerful Navy.

The Government may defer to Britain on the cruiser limit, although United States naval officials -would like to have ships tip to 20,000 tons, fearing the spread of dictators' powers. Acknowledging the complete breakdown of international law and moral standards the Government's sentiment is concentrated on making the Western Hemisphere invincible against any combination.

Members of the Congress, says another message from Washington, are united, in the.sentiment that what Herr Hitler does to Europe should not concern the United States. The "hands off" attitude is favoured, but some members are more apprehensive than others.

Mr. S. D. Mcßeynolds (Democrat — Tennessee) said to-day he did not regard Herr Hitler's expansion policy as a threat to the United States, at any rate not this latest move. "But you cannot tell what he might do next," said Mr. Mcßeynolds.

"If he tries to take Czechoslovakia, France probably will fight." The New York Herald Tribune says: "Britain and France are faced by the fact that with totalitarian diplomacy there can be no final settlement except & settlement based upon the same naked threat of force which dictators have so skilfully and ruthlessly wielded for the democratic Powers. "It has come down to brute reality. They, must fight for what they would defend and abandon what they will not fight for. They must draw their own line." OUTSPOKEN VIEWS COMMENT IN THE PRESS r AUGUST. 1914, RECALLED NEW YORK. March 13 The New York Herald Tribune, in a leading article under the heading "Germany Pleads Guilty," says: "It is to the frightening days of August, 1914, when the Kaiser's steel hosts first invaded Belgium, that memory reverts to-day. Military technique has been altered, but the fundamentals are unchanged. "It is not too much to say that what Germany has just done to Austria would seem to the whole world a confession of her guilt in 1914. In manner as in effect the parallels are appallingly complete, hence the sinking of the heart which will overwhelm every friend of Germany in the present hour.

,"It is true that the entire people cannot be held responsible for the deeds of their dictator, yet plainly enough Hen Hitler has marched to his present triunph by and with the consent of the {jreat mass of the German people. The brutality of this latest gesture toward a peaceful nation is but the inevitable sequel of a long chain of acquiescence in earlier savageries."

The New York Times says: "The blunt fact of the matter is that after long years of concern in Italy about the potential menace of the German Army to the Brenner Pass the German Army is at Brenner to-day. This is an enormous fact for all Europe."