The Hypothesis of Peace
May 8, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 3 THE HYPOTHESIS OF PEACE IT WAS a dramatic moment in Geneva when Ambassador Hugh S. Gibson addressed the...
...we need wait no longer...
...Some6 THE COMMONWEAL May 8, 1929 one had at last dared to roll the ball in an opposite direction...
...In England they declared that the suggestions advanced by Mr...
...Gibson are unacceptable because—we quote from Mr...
...Gibson's speech evoked such enthusiasm...
...May 8, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 3 THE HYPOTHESIS OF PEACE IT WAS a dramatic moment in Geneva when Ambassador Hugh S. Gibson addressed the Preparatory Commission for Disarmament...
...It is the only solution which reconciles three points of view based upon three separate needs...
...Balderston of the World—"a large part of British strength, but not American, will go into small cruisers for patrolling the trade routes...
...It is here that Mr...
...We endorse the former's appeal for an American navy which shall be second to none in the world—in other words, undoubtedly equal to Great Britain's—but we believe with Mr...
...The conference had opened at a time when prospects for agreement were particularly discouraging...
...How will an acceptance of the French plan for a restriction of total tonnage, combined with a formula of our own for translating both tonnage and guns into units of power—units which may be distributed according to the policing needs of the separate nations—prevent us from taking account of the military value of Britain's many naval bases...
...And all this, paradoxically enough, was being done in the name of peace...
...If the Kellogg pact means anything, it means that the world is ready to act as though war has been eliminated as the means of settling disputes...
...For us, Mr...
...Little wonder that Mr...
...There was Italy's desire to have a navy as large as that of France, there were the debates in the French Senate bringing out, subsequently, the importance attached there to submarines, and a dozen other signs pointing to a fierce competition in naval armaments...
...Germany's new cruiser had been revealed as the most formidable development in naval architecture in a generation instead of as the "toy battleship" which was London's first amused epithet...
...Gibson's hypothesis of peace...
...They are giving up the hypothesis of war...
...We cannot agree with him...
...Gibson most widely differ...
...Events in Europe and the United States during recent months had not constituted especially happy omens of success...
...She will have the 6,000-ton ships of limited cruising power which her widespread possessions demand and her strategically located bases permit, and we shall have the 10,000-tonners of great cruising power which our lack of bases necessitates...
...Britten and Mr...
...Great Britain had expressed suspicion of our intentions...
...To us this proposal for equality on a low standard rather than on a high one is a challenge to big-navy men everywhere, but particularly to the big-navy party in Great Britain...
...And so the real test of that pact comes immediately...
...And, clearly enough, the objections raised in one country counteract those in another, making it barely possible that the big-navy men everywhere have spoken before making quite sure what they are talking about...
...It was the enthusiasm of relief...
...But all will be limited according to the sane and desirable idea that a navy may be built to fill the necessities of peace rather than the possibility of war...
...The welcome which it has received ought to be some indication of its fairness in outline, despite the fact that peace workers these days are easily given to hosannas...
...Britten stated that the plan amounts to a "complete surrender" on the part of the United States...
...Gibson that this equality may as well be based on a standard, say, of fifty ships as on one of five thousand...
...Now let us consider Congressman Britten's description of that speech as "another naval victory for British diplomacy...
...The results of this Preparatory Commission will show the temper of the nations, which at present seem ready to follow wherever the United States may lead...
...In answer to those who advise arms as the best insurance against war, we set Mr...
...France will have her submarines...
...Both sides, then, are surrendering, but what they surrender is something which should have been scrapped before...
...Congress had passed the fifteen-cruiser bill in opposition to the wishes of the President and the President-elect...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 1
