THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1934. NAVAL PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 12

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1934. NAVAL PROBLEMS

The naval conversations which were inaugurated earlier in the year on the initiative of the British Government by way of preparation for the Naval Conference which is due to take place next year, were adjourned in July because of the non-arrival of the Japanese delegation. Japan was ready at the time -to discuss problems of procedure, but was unable to send to London experts in a position to discuss technical questions. 5 Her delegation, headed by Admiral Yamomoto, has now arrived, and the conversations are being resumed. They are obviously fraught with great importance in relation to the future naval policies of the Powers. The nations most concerned are Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. The Washington and London treaties, expiring as they do in 1936, are both in the balance. Japan has made no secret of her dissatisfaction with her position under the Washington treaty. The general expectation is that she will denounce it in due course. It has been suggested that the discussions in London are likely to develop into a miniature naval conference. Admiral Yamomoto was credited with stating a few days ago that what Japan would demand at London could not he reconciled with the existing treaties based on the naval ratio system., Everything seems to suggest that the other naval Powers will have to reckon in the discussions with a Japan bent upon extricating herself from naval treaties which she considers disadvantageous. As indicated in various pronouncements the general aim of Japan seems to be the “recovery of an independent national defence.” One of her objectives in naval parity is believed to be a reduction of the British and American fleets to a strength that would eliminate Japan’s inferiority. If that be the quarter in which the wind blows it must be conceded that the prospects for the naval conference next year look somewhat bleak. Japan purports to desire the creation of a naval situa,tion in which no one Power shall menace another. Interviewed in London, Admiral Yamomoto has stated that his country will present a plan designed to have that effect and to give the Powers equal rights and security, with, incidentally, the abolition of the ratio system. But, as the Manchester Guardian has observed, Japan’s defensive naval theory cannot be,considered in a vacuum. For at the bottom of everything is the question of Japanese policy in the Far East, and consequently that of the kind of navy which she desires to carry out her policy in the Pacific. According to apparently reliable report the Japanese delegates now in London have been instructed to urge that during the preliminary discussipns there shall be no raising of political questions as for example Far Eastern problems—and no discussion concerning fortresses and naval bases, and to advocate a total abolition or drastic reduction of capital ships and aircraft carriers. Presumably Japan is not prepared to advance the idea of unlimited freedom for every Power to build as it thinks fit, as this might have inconvenient results. But, asserting that in the political sense her hands are free, she is apparently prepared to assert her freedom to construct whatever armaments she regards as necessary to assure the execution of her policy. It seems a sound deduction which is offered by the Manchester Guardian that what Japan is likely to propose for herself is within certain maximum limits an equality which in her geographical situation would imply a constant superiority, and would enable her, undisturbed, to pursue her Eastern policy. That realisation of this aim would be incompatible with the basic political principles accepted at the Washington Conference of' “security” for the three principal Powers of the Pacific, and the integrity of China, is fairly obvious. Japan is evidently no more desirous than any other Power of being involved in a huge expenditure in the building of

new and competitive vessels. There are aspects, however, in which her policy, so far as it has been revealed, does appear to involve a challenge that must complicate the naval issues that await consideration.