Till the Others Disarm.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 170576, 5 August 1921, Page 7

Till the Others Disarm.

Yesterday we read that Lloyd George had been unanimously approved as the British delegate to the Washington Disarmament Conference. To-day we are informed that the House of Commons has passed estimates providing- for four more capital ships. But there is nothing- there for the scorner. The Conference is concerned with a world-ideal and shadowy future possibilities. The building of four new ships is to meet an immediate and pressing necessity. No one, unless he is sub- (or supra-) normal believes that The world is about to disarm. Every one would like to think that, but no one sensible can. And while we all agree that Britain should set a noble example, we do not desire that she should turn suddenly quixotic. It is enough in the meantime that she has abandoned a two-Power standard. To go any further would be, as Colonel Amery points out, “to stereotype her inferiority.” We assume, too, from the relatively feeble debate, that the immediate claims of the Navy are now at last recognised. Mr Asquith, as he had to, made a spiritless protest, and there was other opposition of a formal kind. But the only kind of i pressure that tells in these cases is that which comes from within. Behind the scenes Governments are seldom unanimous, and it ;has been known for some time that the left wing of Cabinet has been against further expenditure on defence. Partly because the country is so poor; partly because they believe practically, as well as theoretically, in the League of Nations ; partly because they think additions to the Fleet will further fan competitive building; and partly because they pander to the querulous and disgruntled in the streets, there are members of Cabinet who gaze at our idle docks with joy. But we may conclude now that they too bow at last to the inevitable. The blunt facts are that we have not a single capital ship under construction; that for seven years we, have done nothing to keep up to date; that America and -J upan are continually adding,' and remodelling, and refitting; and that the alternative to the millions now asked for is a speedy drop to a third-rate Navy. It cannot be the desire of any Briton that we should maintain a feverish naval race with oar kinsmen, of the United States. The end of that is the downfall of the western world—early, complete and catastrophic. But no Briton can agree either to surrender to others what is so nnrnowly a duty of his own. Until others disarm wo dare not. Until the rest of the world admin* the futility of Fleets at all, wo must maintain a strength sufficient, without alliances, for emergency as well as ordinary calls. And the simple meaning of that, to the Dominions is that they must be prepared to piv.