Evening star., 1921-11-25
]. s. NAVAL OFFER
MOST GENEROUS
Statistical Reviews Bring Out
Real Meaning of Hughes
Proposals.
NEW ANGLE ON TONNAGE
Far More Scrapping Planned for
U. S. Than for England
or Japan.
By the Associated Press.

by tne A4SOcldteN PreSS.
The generosity Of the offer of the
United States contained in the naval
limitation program presented to the
Washington conference by Secretary
Hughes is demonstrated clearly in sta
tistical reviews Of the program and its
meaning. Japan. the statistics show.
has been given an extraordinary allow
1858" ratio for replacements and the
retained tonnage Of the three nations
United States. Great Britain and Japan
are fair and generous.
The "5-5-3" ratio represents a distri-
button Of capital ship tonnage on the
basis of Japan's retaining fleet repre-
senting % per cent Of the total of three
powers. Britain and the United States
would divide the remainder. During the
ten-year period, however. Great Britain
would have in the neighborhood Of 43
per cent. the United States would have
something more than s5 per cent and
Japan over 21 per cent of the total.
The change at the end of the ten-year
holiday represents equalization of the
American and British fleets. to which
Great Britain already has agreed.
Fleet Tonnage Figured.
Under Re "5-5-3" ratio and the pro-
posed limitation of auxiliary tom
mage. as well as capital craft through
application of the replacement rule
of maximum. the British and Amer
1can fleets would reach total of
100000 tons in all combat craft and
Japan $4,000. This makes possible a
comparison Of the relation of fleets
to various factors representative of
the place of each power among the
nations.
Against the simple question of
TeOEr2nhiC9I
stance. the limited fleets would mean
for Japan more than $500 tons Of
naval strength per thousand square
miles. The same figure for the
United States would be approximately
800 tons and for the British Empire
between 80 and 80 tons.
Even more striking in dispropor-
ton favorable to Japan is the COM
pariSon on the basis of accepted
estimates of national wealth. Japan
would have something like $4,000 or
$4,000 fleet tons per billion dollars
in national wealth while the Ameri-
can figure would be little more than
5000 tons per billion and the British
5000 tons per billion.
Disproportion again holds true as to
foreign commerce of each power
Japan would have almost 200 tons of
naval tonnage per million dollars in
her import and export business over
a period of years. The United States
would have little more than so tons
per million and the British between
40 and so tons.
. Again, in relationship Of naval to
and navies are built to some extent
to support the commercial strength
af1oat of their f1ags-Japan would have
nearly 40 tons of fighting ships per
thousand tons Of Japanese commercial
craft. The United States would have
hoy
tabulation and Great Britain less than
SO tons.
Based on Present Status.
Admittedly these figures are of a
most broad and general character. but
they do bring into sharpest relief the
fact that Secretary Hughes proposals
were in fact based substantially on the
did not put forward logical claims to
national interest and place in the world
which might have been advanced to
support a much higher naval ratio as
compared to Japan than was actually
proposed.
American feeling that to make the
good faith of the United States in the
plan plain as a pike staff the limit
of concession to Japan had been of
fered and there is no reason to be-
lieve that any counter proposal that
" ouio SCl y pan hiSiiCI III Tie naval
scale than the 1858" ratio contem-
plates will be acceptable to the Ameri-
can delegation.
Mr.. Hughes, in making the proposal,
pointed out the far more extensive
ship scrapping program the United
States proposes for itself than for
either other power. And the figures
show that the United States has Of
fered to destroy more tonnage in
new ships alone than either other
power has been asked to discard in
both new and old vessels.