BRITAIN AND AMERICA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4044, 6 May 1938, Page 6

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

POSSIBLE ENTENTE. COLONIES EXCLUDED. So far as can be judged, the American part in the request to Japan to state what she is doing in regard to naval building will have the approval of public opinion throughout the United States, wrote the New York correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” on February 6. No voices have been heard in criticism so far, and the impression seems widespread that the inquiry is legitimate and that Japan has not heretofore been candid. While this is true, it does not follow that the proposed increase in the American Navy will meet with general approval. Last week’s debate in Congress on whether there is a secret understanding of some sort between the United States and Great Britain seems to have left a bad impression. For instance, Senator David Walsh, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, said that the proposed increase will not be adopted unless it can be shown clearly that the United States has not engaged in any alliance and that the increase is really necessary purely for defensive purposes. Other members of Congress have made somewhat similar comment. British Isles Only. The point should be emphasised that American public opinion makes a sharp differentiation between the British Isles and British possessions in other parts of the world, particu-

larly the Far East. There is no ill will towards Great Britain in any important section of American opinion. It is taken for granted that a war between these two countries is unthinkable and that their fleets should not be built against each other. There is some fear, however, that President Roosevelt might get the United States involved in a foreign adventure—in the Far East particularly—in defence of British or other European possessions there. As many Americans see if this country now has no possessions in the Far East, having renounced ownership of of negligible importance. American investments in and trade with the Far East are regarded as small in comparison with Britain’s. Opponents of the policy of cooperation often ask, “Why should the United States run the risk of war on behalf of British interests in China, or French Indo-China, or the Dutch East Indies?” Many persons who take this view would not be at all averse to American participation i i an effort to solve the European problem in European terms, and might even welcome an actual proposal that the American and British fleets should be used in common to guard the United States and the British Isles from invasion. Another As regards details of the Japanese naval building programme there is perhaps more interest here in the

question of cruisers than of battleships. As has been frequently pointed out before, the locks of the Panama Canal would prevent the passage of ships much larger than those , built at present. If, however, Japan ' is building cruisers larger than 10,000 tons it is feared they will present a serious problem to the United States in its efforts to maintain the existing strength ratio. Aside from this the most serious American problem is believed to be the speed of big battleships. In the past this has been sacrificed to heavy armament, and this policy is now considered somewhat unwise.

The present interest in naval affairls has been seized by the advocates of another inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua as an opportunity to bring forward their old familiar plan once more. They argue that the second canal is desirable for military reasons and that from an engineering standpoint Nicaragua has always been preferable to Panama as u canal site.