The New York herald., 1921-01-23
BY A. G. GARDINER.
Formerly Editor of the London
''Daily News"

NGWSs
Special Gable TO THE New York HERALD.
Copyright. 1921. by THE NEW YORK HERALD.
LONDON. Jan. 22.-There is much
speculation here regarding the object
of the unexpected visit to London Of
Sir Auckland Geddes, British Ambas-
sador to the United States. The Of
ficially inspired explanation offered is
that domestic reasons brought him
home, but public opinion takes the
view that there is more in 1t than that
Three questions are frankly discussed
in connection with the incident. All
of them the public has linked with the
overshadowing issue Of Anglo-Ameri-
can relations.
The first question is the navy. There
has been little response in the public
mind TO the alarmist articles in the
London Times recently on the subject
of the development of the American
and the Japanese navies in compari-
son to the British navy. For one
thing. naval opinion here is SO utterly
divided on the subject of the future
of sea power that action of any sort
and especially the building of big
ships is out of the question. More
over the British public is in no mood
to be stampeded into a panic Of ex-
penditures on ornaments. Trade Is
daily growing worse and the financial
strain, already unprecedented, threat
ems to go lengths no one can estimate
The anti-waste campaign threatens to
swamp the Government and any can
didate for election who shouts at the
top of his voice for economy Is certain
OF election, no matter what he calls
himself or however transparent an
inpostor he may be.
Cannot Compete With U. q.
We are at the beginning Of such
4 wave of panic economy as this
generation has not seen. Under these
circumstances it would simply be
impossible to engineer a new naval
competition programme. Even jingo
opinion would hesitate to urge such
competition against the United States
while Liberal opinion, which is grow
ing rapidly under the stern discipline OF
these days, would have nothing to dc
with such folly. 1t would refuse to
regard anything the United States
deemed necessary to do as implying
any shadow of menace to this country
1t points to the century of disarma-
ment on the Great Lakes as represents
ing an ideal relationship. a departure
from which is simply unthinkable.
At the same time there is widespread
anxiety that the situation should not
be allowed to drift; that the oppor-
tunity which presents itself to place
the naval relations of the two coun-
tries on the basis Of an indestructibe
understanding should not be lost
Public opinion here associates Sir
Goddess visit here with this subject
Public opinion connects it also with
the cognate question Of Canada's rela-
tions with the United States. This
theme Is much discussed in private
although the public press is signifi-
cantly quiet on the matter. 1t is
realized that the war modified opinion
in the overseas dominions Of the Brit
ish Empire, and notably in Canada
Several incidents show this. The in
sstence of Canada on separate repre-
sentation in Washington marked a new
departure In her conception Of her
relations with the mother country, and
the strong resentment shown by the
Ottawa Parliament against the indis-
criminate granting Of titles to Ca
nadians was further reminder Of the
new spirit of Independent thinking in
this Dominion.