Evening star., 1921-12-24
FRENCH AND ITALIAN SPOKESMEN
OPPOSE ABOLISiING SUBMARINES
Admiral de Bon and Senator Schanzer Tell
Naval Committee WHY They Need I'm
dersea Craft Asks Ban. y

The following statement was is
sued last night after the meeting of
the naval armament committees of
the conferences:
The third joint meeting of the COM
mittee on limitation of Armament
and the subcommittee on limitation
of naval armament was held this
afternoon. December 23. 1921. at 3
o'clock. in the Pau-American building.
Admiral De Bon said that yester-
day the conference had entered upon
the consideration of the question of
abolIShing submarines. 1t had lis
tened to Il remarkable statement and
defense of the British point of view
by Lord Lee of Fareham. The argu-
ment presented had been Very COM
plete and very logical and it may be
said that it supported the view
with the most forcible arguments
that could be brought to bear upon
this side OF the question.
Another consideration of this
particularly remarkable and i'm
portant question was read by Chair
man Hughes. and, even if he had not
had the kindness to enlighten the
conference upon the diStingui she d
personality of the members of the
advisory committee, the incontes-
table value of their arguments would
have signalized their exceptional
ability.
The conclusion of this dissertation
was the reverse of the view advo-
Gated by the Honorable Lord Lee of
Farcham and was in favor of the
preservation of the submarine.
Differences of Opinion.
The two declarations that have
been made had brought to light about
all the arguments that could be
advanced. Accordingly, it would
seem as if the debate might al
most be regarded as exhausted if
there were not in the committee GER
tain differences of opinion regarding
the various arguments which it
would seem desirable to present to
the conference.
He asked permission to review them
briefly before the committee.
In the first place, it had been de-
MED that the submarine was really an
efficient weapon. which was an es-
sential consideration, since, if this
was admitted, it was obvious that
building submarines.
The submarine as weapon against
warships could not be considered use
less. If ii was indeed true that the
great fleet was able to remain at sea
during several months in the midst
of the submarines without any of its
ships being hit, it should be remem-
bered that France lost three battle
ships and five cruisers and had sew
eral other ships torpedoed-130,0 600
tons in all. To this list he could add
a certain number of battleships lost
by Great Britain and by Italy.
Not Useless for Defense.
Finally, the offensive action of the
submarines necessitated the construc-
tion of a considerable defensive sys-
TEN. and this certainly had an inf1u-
ence toward weakening the general
forces of the nations engaged.
AS means of defense the subma- =
rine had not been found useless. 1t
could not. he thought. be denied that
if Germany maintained her coast in
tact. it'was not solely because of the
barrier of mines with which she had
protected it. This could have been
crossed by any force suitably provided d
with mine sweepers if a force of sub
marines, supplementary to the mine
defenSes. had not rendered the ap-
proach to them really dangerous.
In the Adriatic the submarines also
formed one of the most powerful
means of action for the enemy.
In the Dardanelles the allies felt
the effect of the use of submarines