AMERICA AND PEACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19199, 16 June 1924, Page 8

AMERICA AND PEACE

CONGRESSMAN’S SATIRE. WASHINGTON, May 31. “You exclude the Japanese and then order a lot of new fighting ships. What kind of a peaceful nation-are you, anyway?” asked a member of the House of Representatives during a discussion on the proposal to construct eight new cruisers and to recondition six battleships. The House, however, voting 165 to 138, agreed to the Estimates for £30,000,000. The vote was a close one, many Congressmen fearing that the proposed ex pension of the navy was exceeding the limits agreed upon at the Disarmament Conference. Mr Butler, the chairman of the Naval Committee of the House, hinted that the new ships might never b built, but at ahy rate they would pro vide a good argument for the next disarmament conference. “You all know,” Mr Butler said, “that another naval limitation conference y” be called within a vear. Last time Britain said she had 400,000 tons of these cruisers building, and she got many concessions because of it. The United States was at a disadvantage because she had none in hand. We won’t be caught that way again.”