Naval Neuritis
NAVAL NEURITIS RECENT congressional debating of the London treaty bears a certain affinity to what is often witnessed in back-lot baseball. If the lad who is up with two men on bases tries a...
...The opposition is colorful enough...
...It is desirable that at least this indication of good-will should not go unnoticed in the midst of talk about war and rumors of war...
...Stimson, returning from London after arduous months spent in waiting for the French to settle their parliamentary difficulties and for the British to fathom the intentions of II Duce, offers a document and figures attractive to nobody in particular...
...Everybody, including the administration, had hoped for tonnage reductions all around, in the interest of economy and pacification...
...We believe, therefore, that the treaty ought to be underwritten...
...His failure, attributable partly to nationalistic sentiment in his own country, immediately and necessarily aroused the concern of Britain, to which the fate of the Mediterranean is a matter of vital importance...
...Although Admiral Jones did not get all the eight-inch guns he desired, it must be borne in mind that Mr...
...Grateful for even this limited prowess the Secretary has struggled to arrange his dossier as attractively as possible, and to explain why things might have been worse...
...Admirals Bristol and Jones object that failure to secure for the United States a larger allotment of eight-inch-gun cruisers undermines parity at an important point, giving Japan in particular a real advantage...
...Under such circumstances the value of political endeavors like the Kellogg treaties is severely discounted...
...Admiral Jones wanted a minimum of twenty-one eightinch-gun cruisers...
...With such considerations in mind, one might even argue that naval conferences do as much harm as good...
...Realizing that Italy's demand for parity constituted something like a threat, he struggled to find some other way out besides competitive ship building...
...Great Britain and Japan were authorized to do considerable new building, chiefly of light cruisers, destroyers and submarines...
...Admiral Pratt, on the other hand, believes that six-inch guns are worthy of approval in every sense of the term...
...The world's fleets were reduced in only one category, that of capital ships...
...But in a world of realities it is well to understand things as they really are—to accept the fact that parity in ships is an aspect of our present national destiny and to pave the way for such future reductions as may be possible...
...A heavier burden devolves upon the United States, faced with the necessity for building more than $1,000,000,000 worth of ships—either entirely or in part—by 1936...
...Nevertheless it is impossible to ignore the really menacing facts which the conference brought to light...
...There are those who feel that this program which, excepting in the domain of aircraft carriers, is largely a matter of "catching up," should not be undertaken in order that the pacific intentions of the United States may be manifested...
...He got eighteen, owing to the circumstance that a larger allotment would have increased the Japanese quota to a point considered dangerous by Australia and New Zealand...
...MacDonald's government has agreed to dismantle a number of powerful vessels...
...If the lad who is up with two men on bases tries a bunt which develops into a grounder to the box, assorted fans will observe that he should have hit or been hit, knocked a two-bagger or fainted...
...and when one adds the alarm created in Paris by the recent Zeppelin flight over that city (an alarm both amusing and ominous) one has arrived at none too favorable a political balance...
...M. Briand's suggestions, for instance, indubitably suffered in the atmosphere of rivalry and suspicion which surrounded the conference...
...It is remarkable enough that he returned with anything at all...
...But what cannot be doubted is the readiness of the English to meet the United States half-way...
...In so far as the treaty generally is concerned, we find ourselves in agreement with the New York World: "Americans who are concerned about stabilizing armaments as a basis of world peace should recognize, we believe, that this treaty is a substantial advance over any they have ever achieved before, and that its partial failure is due to political causes which neither the leading statesmen of Britain and America nor the general public were adequately prepared to understand...
...British alarmists have had their say...
...The royal navy will put out of commission five heavy cruisers while the United States will abandon three old ships of slightly smaller range, and there are other concessions...
...It is lodged, first of all, in the General Board of the Navy, prominent officers identified with which are frankly disappointed with several technical decisions reached in London...
...and since these depend for their effectiveness upon public opinion, the whole movement toward diplomatic amity is halted...
...The extreme party in Japan well-nigh made it impossible for Nippon's delegates to agree to any kind of practical compromise...
...Of greater significance is the question of curtailment...
...Naturally the layman is not qualified to solve this problem...
...Nothing of the sort proved possible, owing chiefly to international complications...
...While the activity of "big navy" enthusiasts in all countries is eminently natural (we mean not the desire of a good officer for a good ship, but the enthusiasm of superpatriots for power on the seas) their policy of creating thunderheads in order to frighten public opinion gives unfortunate international happenings a significance wholly out of keeping with their real import...
...but he cannot help noticing that the tonnage involved in the debate is very small...
...It is argued that Great Britain is obviously not bothering about an "American war" but is concerned with continental problems, and that Japan's attitude is purely defensive...
...Thus the conference left the European situation more chaotic than it had been previously...
...Therefore the matter in dispute does not seem important enough to serve as a determining factor...
Vol. 12 • June 1930 • No. 5
