The Return
THE RETURN /CONGRESSMAN Britten's welcome home to ^^ Secretary Stimson is an announcement that the House Committee on Naval Affairs, of which he is chairman, will conduct hearings on the treaty...
...THE RETURN /CONGRESSMAN Britten's welcome home to ^^ Secretary Stimson is an announcement that the House Committee on Naval Affairs, of which he is chairman, will conduct hearings on the treaty so laboriously concluded at London...
...It may be argued that appropriations for naval construction originate in the House of Representatives, and from this it might follow that Mr...
...They will be wide open for attack and he can come forth, at the proper hour...
...But would it not be good generalship if he were to save his energies for an occasion worthier of them, and one more optimistic of success in keeping with the labor expended...
...He is anxious to discredit the treaty, and the prime purpose of the hearings is to establish a source for propaganda...
...The persons who should be displeased with the London treaty are not the isolationists or the big navy men, but all who hoped that Mr...
...Our unwillingness to enter into any kind of political agreement, even an agreement to consult with the other powers in the threat of war, almost wrecked the conference and had we been able to enter such a pact the conference could have adjourned a month earlier than it did, with a five-power treaty ready for the signing...
...This treaty stands an excellent chance of being passed quickly...
...And if it leaves the Mediterranean problem still in the air, if the conference which drafted it at times increased the rancor between France and Italy, at least it has confirmed the understanding between Great Britain, Japan and ourselves...
...MacDonald have paid it...
...Britten ought to save himself for such a possibility...
...Britten's purpose is to secure advance information for the budget...
...It seems to us that Secretary Stimson deserves applause for bringing home any treaty at all...
...The enemy will be fooled into thinking him permanently comatose and overreach themselves...
...if that can be done the principle of limitation of arms by agreement will be definitely established in practice, and much doubt about the success of further conferences will be removed...
...Within the next five years we shall have a smaller navy, true, but it ought to be a more efficient one, better balanced and with greater fighting power, considering the new problems of naval warfare...
...France and Italy are to begin negotiations between themselves, and the heads of both delegations have been good natured enough to promise that an understanding satisfactory to the other powers will be arrived at...
...This is what Mr...
...Britten ought to beware of...
...it has adjourned for the time being...
...Hoover and Mr...
...If the Geneva fiasco did not make the world lose interest and confidence in the movement for disarmament, we do not think it extravagant to believe that the partial success at London will yet be the basis for other pacts, more general in scope and more drastic in detail, pacts limiting navies and armies to the actual policing requirements of peace, pacts based upon the expectancy of peace...
...This is not much, but it is more than was accomplished at Geneva...
...And whom shall they blame for its betrayal of these bright hopes...
...It was indeed a great deal we asked of our delegation —to secure substantial reductions in naval armaments without political commitments of any character...
...Considering the difficulties which were much greater than expected, and the fact that intensive preparation on the part of Great Britain and the United States was not duplicated by France and Italy, probably the treaty deserves all the tributes which Mr...
...Now despite Mr...
...All those who want us to have the strongest fleet on the seas will not think of this in terms of victory...
...MacDonald's chipper predictions of wholesale disarmament had some basis in fact...
...What sufficient objection can be raised against its ratification...
...But we doubt that he himself will trouble to present this or any other excuse...
...The naval conference has not ended...
...Britten needs no apologies...
...The way has been left open for this three-power treaty to become in all respects one of five...
...Let him lay low and bide his time...
...Britten's well-known distaste for naval conferences of any size, shape or color, this announcement comes as a surprise, for it is equally well known that the Senate alone has power to ratify or to reject treaties...
...Of course it stipulates a battleship holiday, and gives us parity with Great Britain...
...It is quite harmless...
...We know how nearly Great Britain and France reached an understanding before the conference adjourned, and it is perfectly obvious that the one obstacle which could not finally be overcome was the attitude of the United States...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 1
