Arizona republican., 1921-12-24
FRENCH NAVAL HEAD OPPOSES LIMIT 0N SUB CONSTRUCTION
French And Italian Delegates Oppose Balfour
 In Triangular Debate; French Admiral States Conference Cannot Place Any Limit
 On Subs But Willing To Abide By U. s. Proposal To Limit Craft To 90 ,OOO Tons
rRepubIIcan A. p. Leased Wirel

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23.-A three hour triangular debate on subma rines occurred today in the naval committee of the Washington con- ference, Admiral De Bon of France, Arthur J. Balfour. head of the British group, and Senator Schanzer of It. ally. being the only participants. The official communique issued by the committee showed that nosaction was taken. although Admiral De Bon de- clarsd the conference could not req sonably' limit submarine construc- tion at all, but that if it did, that S0.000 tons is the absolute minimum for all the navies who may want to have a submarine force" For the British. MT. Balfour reiterated and extended arguments already ad- vanced by Lord Lee for total abol- ishment of submarines. He admit ted however that the British en- pire has not hope of getting any inn portant support in the course of this conference" adding:
 T do earnestly trust that our de- bates may go beyond the limits of this room or even of public ses- sion"
 Senator Schanzer insisted that the conference was confronted by StE4 crinion.' as to the defensive value of submarines. The Italian delegation felt that the problem should be "ex- anined subsequently, in a wider con- ference" he said, before any action toward the abolishment of the under water craft could be taken.
 For the present" Senator Schan- ger added, "one point is clear in our minds and that is that the best course would be. to follow even in this case the spirit of the American proposal and consequently to limit submarines to the measure strictly necessary for the ends Of purely de- xensive naval policy"
 Against Extreme Methods
 Admiral De Bon took exception to a portion of MT. Balfour's remarks which the French officer regarded as smputing to him desire to support the theory that submarines had right to destroy merchant vessels af- ter saving the crews. Neither he nor the French government held that view, he said.
 MT. Balfour replied that he had not intended to 'misrepresent Ad- miral De Bon" but had attempted to show that if the submarine was to play ''the great role in future wars which Admiral De Bon had suggest ed in his speech, it could only do so by resort to extreme methods for II was futile to suppose that suoma- rines would make practice ol stopping merchant ships and placing prize crews on board to take them into port"
 Admiral De Bon opened the debate with A lengthy address to the com mittee calling attention to the op- posing views as to submarines ex- pressed yesterday by Lord Lee ane the report of the American advisory committee. But flor certain differ ences of opinion" in the naval com rnittee, he said, these two presenta tions might be regarded as hdViht almost exhausted" debate.
 As to the usefulness of submarine against war craft, Admiral De Boi recalled that France lost three battle ships. five cruisers and had severa other ships torpedoed during tn war. losing 130,000 tons in hghtlnl craft in all from submarine 'attaeh He said that Italy and Great Britall had also lost battle craft in the sam way and that in addition, all thre nations were compelled to erect de fensive systems against u-poat which "certainly had an influenc toward weakening the general force pf the nations engaged.
 Far Coast Defenses
 The admiral argued that German had maintained her entire coast in tact" because her submarine fore had made approach to the mine flel protections really dangerous" whi in the Adriatic, submarines als formed one of the most powerf' means of action for the enemy.
 Bombardment of Turkish fortn cations at the Dardanelles. he adde had been hampered but enemy sut marines had paid for their effor with the loss of several ships.
 U-boats had shown themselves "e; pecially" efficient Admiral De BC ss5d against the merchant marin
 what had struck terror to all people he added had been the German a tack on neutrals and non-belligeren
 (Continued on Page Two)