The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-11-16

ament and preparation for war
 that has ever been conceived or
 carried out by the courage and
 patriotism of statesmen. l do
 not pretend, of course-it would
 be follow to pretend--that this or any other scheme, by whateverp
 genius 1t may have been eRn- triyed, can deal with every sIb- jects can cover the whole ground
 of international reconstruction. It would bes folly to make the at
 tempt and 1t would he folly to
 pretend that the attempt has yet been made in any single scheme ns was most clearly explained by 1 the Secretary of State on Satur-
 day. The scheme deals, and deals
 only, with three nations which
 own the largest fleets at present in the world. Therefore, of me-
 cessity Omits all consideration for the time being of these nations who have diminished their fleets
 and who at present have no de-
 sire, and I hope never will have
 any desire, to own fleets beyond the necessities that national hon. or and national defense require.
 Again, it does not touch a ques- tion which every man coming from r Europe must feel to be a question of immense and almost paramount importance; l mean the heavy bur den of land armaments. That Is left to one side, to be dealt with by other schemes and in other ways. What 1t does IS surely one of the biggest things that has ever yet been done by constructive statesmanship. It does deal with the three great fleets of the world and in the broad spirit in which it deals with those fleets in the preparation of disarmament which it lays down for these fleets, the government of the country which I represent is in the fullest and the heartiest sympathy with the policy which the United States have brought before Us for our consideration. They have, as we think most rightly, taken the battle fleet as the aggressive unit which they have in the main to consider; and In the battle fleet you must Include those auxiliary ships without which a modern battle fleet has neither eyes nor ears, has little power of defense against certain forms of attack, and little power of observation; little power of dealing with any equal foe to which it may be opposed.
 Thinks Proportion Acceptable%
 Taking those two as really be- longing to one subject, namely, the battle fleet; taking those two, the battleship% themselves and the ves- sells auxiliary and necessary to bat tie fleet, we think that the propor- tion between these various countries is acceptable; we think the limitation of amounts is reasonable; we think 1t is acceptable.
 Tn n1U NfatV nf fhA m which has been sent around the world on Saturday is not message which is going to be received by those most concerned with cool appreciation. l believe it is going to be received by them with warm, heart approval, and with every effort at full. loyal and complete cooperation.
 Submarine Tonnage
 q think it would be ill-fitting on such an occasion as this if l were to attempt to go into any details. There are questions-and 1 have no doubt that the Secretary of State, our chairman, would be the first to tell us that there are details which can only be adequately dealt with Ill committee. At the first glance, for example, and l give it merely as an example, our experts are inclined to think that perhaps too large an amount of tonnage has been permit ted for submarines. Submarines are class of vessels most easily abused in their use and which, in fact, in the late war were most grossly abused. We admit that probably the subma- rine is a defensive weapon properly used of the weak, and that it would be impossible, or if possible, it might a1I ha oh lacf .a hI fa al I..Al- sh them altogether. But the amount of submarines tonnage permitted by the new scheme is Tar in excess, l believe. of the tonnage possessed by any nation at the present, and l only throw it out as a suggestion that it may be we'll worth considering whether that tonnage should not be further limited, and whether in addl tion to limiting the amount of the tonnage it might not be practicable, and if practicable. desirable, to for bid altogether the construction of those vast submarines of great size which are not intended for defense, which are not the weapon of the weaker party, whose whole purpose is attack and whose purpose is prob ably attack by methods by which civilized nations would regard with horror.
 However, they may be other ques- tons of detail, questions connected with replacement, questions connect ed with cruisers which are not con nected with replacement, questions connected with cruisers which are connected with or required for fleet action. But those are matters for consideration by the technical ex- perts, and however they be decided, they do not touch the main outline of the structure which tho United States government desires ereeted and which we earnestly wish tqThelp them in erecting.
 "That structure stands, as 1t
 seems to me. clear and firm, and
 cannot help thinking that in
 the broad outline, whatever may
 happen in the course of these dis-
 cussions during the next few
 weeks, that structure will remain
 as it was presented by its orig
 innI architects for the admiration
 and for the use of mankind.
 Tax Saving
 "I have little more except this. It is easy to estimate in dollars or in pounds, shillings and pence the say ing to the taxpayer of each of the rations concerned which the adop- tion of this scheme will give It is easy to show that the relief is great It is easy to show that indirectly 1t will, as I hope and believe, greatly stimulate industry, national and in- ternational, and do much to diminish the difficulties under which every civilized government is at this time laboring. All that can be weighed, measured, counted, all that is mat ter of figures. But there is some thing in this scheme which is above Qhn RI,00D p|IIMc