The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-24
THE HUGHES DIPLOMACY.

The diplomatic world probably has
not yet fully recovered from the shock
it received when Secretary Hughes
made his drastic proposal for limita-
ton of ornaments. No other men,
Der of the conference, not even Mr..
Balfour himself, would have dared
make such a suggestion.
The essence of the Hughes plan is
in its reference to the disposition of
new capital ships. Great Britain is
not asked to scrap a single ship now
under construction. Her building pro-
gram, so far as known, consists of
four battle cruisers of the Hood type.
But not a stroke of work has been
done on any of them; in fact, they
were authorized only last summer,
after the ornaments conference had
actually been called. Some money
has been spent on them, but only for
plans.
The United States. on the other
hand, signifies its willingness to scrap
rs capital ships, construction on every
one of which has been started. The
expenditures to date on those vessels
total $332,OO0,O0O. Two of them have
already been actually launched. They
are the Colorado and Washington, of
$4,000 tons each. The former is so
per cent complete, and the latter 20
per cent finished. The state of COM
pletion of the other thirteen ships
varies, but they all are on the way
to take their places in the American
fleet.
In fixing his tentative program of
reductions Mr.. Hughes has gone to
the length of putting side by side for
tonnage consideration the four British
Hoods, which have not progressed
farther than a mere paper plan, and
American battleships far advanced in
construction, two of them being &C
tually in the water. To put it an
other way. $4,000 tons of paper
Hoods have been set over against
$4,000 tons of new American ships,
probably q third of which is material
already fashioned and incorporated
into the structure o. the vessels.
Again. the United States is willing
to credit Great Britain with the ton
as worthless and consigned to the
scrap yard before the ornaments con-
ference convened. These scrapped
British ships, together with certain
! secoId line ships, and more or less
| Anticipated first line ships. total ALL
600 tons. AS against that tonnage
| the United States attempts to put up
nothing that she has scrapped, such as
the battleship Alabama recently used
as an airplane target. but confines
herself to second line vessels with
tonnage OF about 22s.OO0 tons.
The British government could not
have written a reduction program
more to its liking than that submitted
by Secretary Hughes. 1t is impossible
that the British representatives will
do anything less than accept it as
proposed, when Great Britain and the
| United States Will b. aligned in favor
OF definite schedule for naval re-
trenchment that includes certain cuts
| in the japanese building program.
What can Japan do under such cir
cumstances? Apparently nothing but
accede to the agreement into which
the United States and Great Britain
have tentatively entered.
It can hardly be doubted. that all
the other members Of the conference
win fall IN with the American and
British delegates. and the japanese
will find themselves alone if they
] seek to amend the reduction plan ac-
cording to their own conceptions.