The spectator., 1921-11-29
VIVID EXAMPLE
 IF NAVAL GROWTH
LOCKS OF THE PANAMA CANAL ALREADY ALMOST TOO SMALL
 FOR BIGGEST WARsHlPS.
ADVANCES OF EIGHT YEARS
Continuous and Rapid Development in Size and Efficiency of War Materiei Has Bearing on the Conference on Armaments.
By EDWARD 3. CLARK.

WaShingtOn.-1t was only eisnt years ago that the water from Gatun 1 lakeNwas turned into the Cuiebra cut, now known as the Gaillard cut. The canal then was opened for commerce and for the passage of battleships. It was thought at that time, October, 1913, that the locks had been made large enough to accommodate any war vessel which was likely to be built for century to come. Yet today, only eight years from the time of the opening of the waterway, there are ships of the American navy which have to "scrunch" in order to get through the Gatun, the Pedro Miguel and the Miratlores locks.
 This fact has some bearing on the conference for the limitation Of arma- ments and Far East problems. ai- though on the surface 1t may not seem in any way to be related to the prop lens to be solved. There may be limitation set on the number of ships which any nation may keep in com mission, and there may be ordered reduction in the number of vessels at present commissioned in the various navies. but 1t is known, of course, that every country will be allowed to keep a navy of sufficient size to protect its various interests.
 Of course there will be navios in the future just as there are navies today, and it Is not believed that anything will be done nt the conference 10 pre- vent improvements and enlargements l of the ships of the present time when vessel replacements are necessary ana are authorized under the rules govern ing limitation agreements.
 It has been suggested from time to time, more because of the humor or fancy tbnn for any other reason, that the nations of the world go back to the days of old wooden ships and smooth bore gys., in Uftnf ID save money for the taxpayers. The argument was that If no nations had anything but wood eu ships and smooth bores they would be on the sane war level ns they are when each possesses its steelclads and it's 16-inch rifles.
 What Future Battles May Be. Of course any such suggestion as this instantly was repudlated, but 1t is within the range of remote possl' bilities that something may be sug- | gested at the coming conference 10 1 bring n pause to the further develop i ment of destructive engines of war fare. Probably. of course, this Will not be done, and If science and tnven- tion so forward IS they have gone for ward in the last 90 years, the day will 1 come when man cannot go to war on sea or land without knowing that either his army or his feet or the army or the fleet of the enemy is to 1 be annihilated. No one left 10 tell the tale, may be the history of some great battle of the future.
 A few weeks ago 1000 marines of i the United States navy engaged in ! battle maneuvers at the Wilderness i where the Grant and Lee foSces met ! fifty-Odd years ago. Such has been ! the improvement, if you want 10 call i 1t improvement, in the machinery of I us they were the other day and with ] all the modern machinery of warfare | at theic command, had met in actual i battle on the field force numerically equal 70 the combined armies of Grant and Lee, armed as those armies were in 1864, the marines could have swept the combined forces opposed 10 them
 
 have lost d man.
 In the Spanish war there was an American merchant vessel which had ! been converted into cruiser IL mounted four 5-inch guns. It was just u merchant vessel, and yet alone 1t could have destroyed in battle every man of-war which the North and the South together put on the seas in the : days of the Civil war, ~nd could have done 1t in single fight.
 One of our newest and greatest bat tleships today could destroy without much of an effort the combined Ameri- can and Spanish fleets as they existed Brooklyn, the New York. the Oregon, the Indiana. the Iowa, aud all the rest plus the steel clads of Cervera would have been sent to the bottom after short engagement with one cap ital ship of our present day navy.
 Ignorance in Reds Attack.
 In tie attempt of the Red element of human society to assassinate the American ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrics, and In threats of violence to United States ambassadors and consuls elsewhere. there Is seen new evidence of the fact that certain foreigners still are unable to differen. tiate between the federal government of the United States and the indIvidu- al governments of the states.
 Ambassador Herrick, directly or in- directly, had as much to do in an off. cial way with the trial and conviction