Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-11-14

as the other powers feel they do, II
was said.
Long Step Taken.
At any rate. the American pro-
posal has made flat proposition
as to battle cruisers, which it was
thought might be different of
treatment at the conference. 1t
remains to be seen what Japan and
Great Britain think about it, but a
long step toward agreement on that
question has been taken, naval folk
believe.
Actual business of negotiation
will get under way tomorrow. when
heads of delegations will meet to
discuss procedure, subject likely
to develop into one of the most i'm
portant of the conference. From
very interested power have come
expressions emphasizing that the
order in which the topics appear
on the program would have sig
nificant bearing on the ability OF
the conference to move quickly to-
ward practical results.
Two Meetings To-day.
To agree on preliminary details,
two meetings will be held. In the
morning the committee on progra m
and procedure for limitation of ar
mament, of which the heads of the
American, British, French, Italian
and Japanese delegations are men,
bers, will consider the armament
end of the program and in the
afternoon the committee on pro-
gram and procedure for far east
ern questions, consisting OF the
heads of the delegations of all nine
nations holding seats in the con-
ference, will assemble.
During the afternoon the Ameri-
can advisory committee will meet
and Chairman Sutherland VIII an
nounce the personnel OF the SIX SUD-
committees.
Tonnage Figures.
Technical advisers tomorrow will
further study the American pro-
posal under which tonnage figures
in capital ships for the three
powers for imm date reductions
would be: Great Britain 604,45O;
United States. 500,050; Japan.
299,700. The llst Of ships to be
retained shows that the British
preponderance over the United
States is practically all in her four
battle cruisers. Tn that way, APP
parently, the American group
worked out Mr.. Hughes general
statement as to the necessity of
having regard ito the existing ma
val strength of the powers con-
cerned."
Battleship Tonnage.
So far as battleship tonnage goes,
in the retained fleets, American and
Pritish forces would be about the
same, around 100000; and that of
Japan j, 1t under 100000. This
links directly with Mr.. Hughes
suggestion as to replacement
program, based on fixed tonnage
for each power, to apply only after
ten years of no building, then, UNI
der the American proposal, Great
Britain would be allowed to main
tain up to 100000 tons in capital
ships, the Unit d States the same,
and Japan 100000.
In other words, after ten years
the British fleet must be brought
down to the same tonnage basis as
the American, while the Japanese
would remain substantially where 1t
was at the time of the first reduc-
ton.
Apparently, It is expected that
the British strength would be re-
duced sufficiently by the wearing
out Of ships during the ten years.
Gun Power OF Fleets.
Statistics as to the gun power OF
the three fleets to be retained show
that the United States and Japan
would have one ship each mount
/ ing eight sixteen-inch rifles each
Great Britain would have ten
ships carrying eighty fifteen-inch
rifles: one carrying ten fourteen
| inch guns and her other seven ships
would be a~ned with seventy
British 1875 guns.
The United States in addition to
the sixteen-inch gun ship, e
Maryland, just commissioned,
would have eight ships carrying
twelve fourteen-inch guns each;
four carrying ten fourteen-inch
each, two carrying twelve twelve
inch and four carrying ten twelve
inch each. Japan, in addition to
her ono sixteen-inc,. gun ship
would have forty-eight fourteen
inch guns and twelve twelve-inch
on her battleships and thirty-two