The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. NAVAL REDUCTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1929, Page 8

The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. NAVAL REDUCTIONS.

One of the first results of the conferences between the American President and the British Premier’ is the announcement of the summoning of a Five-Power conference in London next January. The five Naval Powers are: Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy. Apparently the British Premier is doing all he can to pave the way for a successful result of this conference, and it seems possible for an agreement to ensue. At the same time there are indications of certain contentious points being raised, though between now and the date of the conference there will be ample time for well directed attempts in the direction of adjusting the views of the various nations concerned. So far as the United States is concerned, Senator Swanson, who is a "Big Navy” advocate, as well as a prominent Democrat, has declared that President Hoover had no power to order the postponement of the laying-down of the keels of three new ten thousand-ton cruisers, sanctioned by Congress, but that

iit was the President’s duty, under the Constitution, to carry out the will of Congress, and not to impose his own will, also that it behoves him to obey the law. Evidently this Opposition Senator considers Britain is playing a “cute” game, and that all she has to do is to delay matters and negotiate to keep her present status, which gives her navy an overpowering superiority over that of America. Moreover, he argued that not until the British realise that the United States is firmly determined to have a navy “substantially equal” will any agreement be reached. He then gave a reminder that it was the Ramsay MacDonald former government which made the British Navy superior to the American Navy, and that it was practically the present Government that aided in creating competition in cruisers. He also considers that Britain is bent upon confining the United States fleet to home waters, where it would be powerless to protect American commerce, hence he predicts if the reduction proposals are carried out, the American Navy will be a poor second to the British Navy, and, like recent critics of Mr. Hoover’, he treats the question as though it concerned America and Britain alone- This apparent inability to see that, however simple may be the position of the United States, [the problem of sea strength caninot be considered by a British ■ Government as merely bilateral. This appears to be a disturbing factor which may break out in the Senate. It is very easy to contend that Britain should be the first to do the scrapping of warships—built and building. Strange as it may appear, there is a section of Americans which insists that the scrapping of American tonnage after the Washington Conference stands alone as an example. There appears to be no remembrance whatever of the fact that before that conference the size of the British Navy had been heavily reduced by scrapping. It is only right, however, to state that in a long article by Mr. Raymond Leslie Bell, in the Washington Star, the writer bluntly asks whether the United States can in fairness ask Britain to scrap a further number of large cruisers if America refrains from building at least the majority of* the cruisers authorised in 1929, and whether the world in general can expect Britain to make such a sacrifice, | especially as Britain reduced her cruiser strength to less than half what it was before the war. He also stresses, not only the comparative and vital needs of the two countries—the one having only two coastlines to protect, while the other, besides having possessions scattered over the world, is vitally .dependent upon overseas sources of food, as well as being involved in European, and even in far Eastern, • politics to a greater extent than America, and has accepted heavy commitments to an economic blockade under the League of Nations which do not bind the United ►States. If such arguments do not carry conviction to the American Government, they ought to make an impression on the other Naval Powers. There is just a possibility that the United States Senate may fight the cruiser battle over again, and thus reopen the whole matter at a time when delicate negotiations are proceeding at the London Conference, invitations to which have now been issued. As to the sensational story concerning an alleged attempt to bribe a British General to stir up enmity between Britain and America on the big navy question, it can be , relegated to obscurity. It often [ happens that some person who i suffers from mental delusions acts in a somewhat similar manner to that of the mysterious interviewer, and the pity of it is that such attempts ever become public, for at most they are confined to individuals who either revel in practical jokes or suffer from brain disease. There is much in the main point made by the British Premier when addressing American Senators, to the effect that in the past there had been too many misunderstandings, adding: “We gird our loins to-day and pursue the path of peace.” That is the one great goal at which all the nations should aim.