Twilight in London
Young, George C.
TWILIGHT IN LONDON By GEORGE C. YOUNG BY THE time this is published the naval conference will have reached the turning-point after which it must either fail or else fulfil the high expectations...
...As for the Russians they and their absurd ideas of abolishing all warships larger than gunboats have been of course excluded...
...freedom of the seas-they must have parity in practical weapons of war and must add to their own the equivalent of any actual advantage of the British...
...For it is obvious that the British though they have accepted the principle in technicalities of war, have not done so in terms of sea law...
...Young concludes, however, that the key to the situation is in the possession of the American government and its delegation.-The Editors...
...He sees one major difficulty in the circumstance that "the position of each of the parties is in each case very defensible...
...But when they go on to assert that nevertheless the conference will be a public success it is alarmed...
...As to the general position and its possibilities there are two difficulties...
...For if this mountain in labor of princes, premiers, presidents and plenipos produces nothing more than a mousey agreement on augmented naval armaments for the next few years-why each people will see its own leader as a "wee cowering timorous beastie...
...Even if they achieve an agreement as to the convention of a second conference to deal with this more fundamental disarmament it will not help the results of the present conference or recommend them to the public...
...We offer Mr...
...The best opening seems to lie along the line of some undertaking to confer as to connected action in the case of circumstances likely to lead to a collision-an undertaking that would leave the constitutional control of the Senate unquestioned and would yet satisfy the British and French on the point of security...
...The Americans are, in a sense, right in requiring that as they cannot have parity based on new principles of international law-i.e...
...MacDonald and Mr...
...Young's comment as an analysis of the factors which have, thus far, interfered with progress toward disarmament...
...However, that line of advance is now lost and it is no use weeping over spilt milk of human kindness...
...Since they still expect freedom of the seas which is based on parity in terms of sea law, the British on their side, are, in a sense, right in arguing that while Americans have security they themselves have it neither geographically, economically nor politically...
...Their only leverage, the power of the purse in the menace of new construction of battleships and large cruisers, is hampered by their own pacifist public opinion and pacific official purpose...
...Here is the ground upon which the five cases rest...
...Is there any solution-and if so what...
...May I suggest another...
...There is a precedent for this in the Washington treaty as to the Pacific...
...And there seems some reason to fear lest these promoters in their concentration on the tactics of the war of position may have become oblivious to the necessity of reaching such objectives as the public can appreciate and approve...
...The French are, in a sense, right in demanding that, as British and Americans refuse them the guarantees of their sea frontiers given in respect of their land frontiers at Locarno, and granted generally at Versailles but later withdrawn again, they must in view of their present situation and past sufferings have such security by armaments as seems reasonable to them rather than the ratio imposed on them at Washington...
...When Mr...
...TWILIGHT IN LONDON By GEORGE C. YOUNG BY THE time this is published the naval conference will have reached the turning-point after which it must either fail or else fulfil the high expectations excited by its promoters...
...The Americans whose policy it is to widen the front and open out a new field for negotiation in terms of law-i.e., freedom of the seas so as to force the other parties out of their trenches in terms of war-i.e., command of the seas- do not seem able to do so...
...And this second difficulty is that the position of each of the parties-the last ditch in which their die-hards have dug themselves in-is in each case very defensible...
...I believe I am responsible for the phrase adopted in America that this conference must operate "in faith, hope and parity...
...So far the only result on record-the abandonment of the abolition of submarines has been a disappointment for which no convention for the regulation of submarine war can compensate...
...That parity begins at home...
...Abolition would have meant a break in the technical tradition of competitive construction and in the technical training of crews that it would have taken a belligerent so long to make good as to render the recourse to this weapon in breach of its abolition hardly worth while...
...America now has the power abroad to make a new peace of the sea if it has the power at home to do so...
...Stimson announce that the result may be restriction and regulation of armaments instead of reduction and renunciation the public recognizes that this warning may be necessary tactics...
...Why should it not be also applied to other specified seas ? All the better if this undertaking can be implemented by agreement in advance as to measures for regulating warfare and revising sea law-in other words, for freedom of the seas...
...But, if a few submarines are in being, to add to their number and augment both their power and their ruthlessness is well worth evading or even defying humanitarian regulations, as was in fact done in the last war...
...The cart is before the horse and they are seated in the cart...
...While the Japanese have their own rather insular interests and ideas...
...It only remains to find such a policy as they can put through their own constitutional channels...
...That unless America is able to accept a parity in responsibility for maintaining the terms of peace at sea it cannot expect a parity in making these terms...
...Oddly enough only the Italians seem to be unreservedly "on the side of the angels" in supporting abolition of submarines, suspension of battleships and general reductions-and how they came there quite suddenly can only be inferred and is not solely attributable to confidence in peace...
...It knows it is not so and it does not see why they say so...
...They alone have the power of the purse, of position and of purpose...
...One is that the front has been so narrowed that there is no room for maneuver in avoidance of a deadlock between the last ditches in which everyone is digging themselves in...
...Such uncertainty prevails regarding the future of the London Conference as this article goes to press that any comment upon it must be tentative...
...One thing is clear, that if there is, it must be found out and forced through by the Americans...
...and that, as the minority government of the most menaced community, which under the Covenant has accepted international responsibilities for the maintenance of sea law and the peace of the world, they must maintain a minimum of naval arms that amounts at present to a major armament...
...For that is the field in which Americans and the secondary naval powers can meet on common ground and into which the British in view of parity and the peace pact can scarcely refuse to follow them...
Vol. 11 • March 1930 • No. 21
