Evening star., 1921-12-24

were by nature. something that en-
couraEsd defense and discouraged at
tack. Il is nothing of the kind. A
state which is itself. not dependent
upon seaborne commerce, but which
has some access to the sea, can, with
out building a battleship. without
having any great naval estimates,
make itself one of the most formid-
able Of aggressive powers to its mari
time neighbors. Italy has five mari
time neighbors in the Mediterranean.
l hope and believe that peace. eternal
peace. will reign in those waters and
in those ancient homes Of civilization.
from, as it were. the cold and calcu-
lating point of view of member of
a general staff. He, looking at it
without any political knowledge,
without any foresight as to the trend
of opinion. and merely considering
how nations are situated. would say
to Italy, You have five neighbors.
each one of which can. IL 1T desires 1t.
blockade your coast and make your
position untenable without having a
single surface ship of war at their
disposal
Takes Up Situation OF France.
"Now I will take the case of France.
France is nearly self-supporting in
point of food, and France has great
land frontier which gives her access,
directly and indirectly, to all the
great markets of the world. She has
a position of great security from the
side of the sea. NJ. BRAND assured
us In very excellent terms that she
is in a position of very great inse-
curity by the side of the land, and
he certainly indicated to an atten-
tive world that France not only re-
quired large army now. but as
events develop she might again re-
a
the Atlantic or across the channel.
This encouragement of submarines
this passionate declaration that it
would be almost criminal to inter-
fere with the growth of this promis
ing, though at present. infantile
weapon of war-how is that going to
be met? Here l must call attention
to fact which has hardly been
touched upon or noticed in the course
of this debate. The only notice
taken of it, SO far as l know, was in
Admiral De Bon's speech which we
of course it was true that the case
( of navies would be increased by the
fact that you had to find small craft
to deal with submarines. if sub
| marines were allowed. But, he said,
you could get those small craft from
| merchant ships and from your fishing
population. Now can Feance and
! Italy get these people from their
| merchant ships and their fishing pop
| ulation? Allow me to read the fig
| ures. The whole war turned upon
, the possibility of keeping open COM
United States of America, Great
| Britain and France and on supplying
| Italy with TIE absolute requisites of
| national life. That was the most
difficult problem of the war Before
! that YOU had to develop to the ut
most your auxiliary craft which deal
! with submarines. Every one of the
! three countries had to do everything
+, they knew to carry out their object.
| THESE are their comparative contri-
l buttons to it:
| France, 257 ships: Italy, 2SS ships;
Great Britain. 1876 ships.
Protection for Coasts.
| IF that war had been fought with
out Great Britain, where are the
| merchant ships and where are the
| sailors. where are the fishing folk
| that would have manned the only pro-
| lection you had or would have had
| against the absolute blocade of your
| coast?
| The blocade in the case of Italy
of all the necessities Of life, the
blocade in the case of France of all!
| the allied soldiers that came to her
| assistance and all the munitions of
war. without which she could not
!
have succeeded-if 1t had not been for
i the fishing population and the mer-
! camille population Of Greet Britain,
| and for these innumerable trawlers
that sailed on every sea. 1t Wes the
British craft that did it. not the
Italian or the French craft. We will
then see how the situation develops.
! Supposing that the situation in the
late. war reproduced itself. as NJ.
BRAND fears that it may. and suppos-
to her assistance. as l hope they will
they will be dependent for. the very
possibility Of giving the smallest as
sistance to- France or keeping Italy
alive. uponnthat organization of anti
submarine craft which Italy and
France at this moment are among
those who are compelling Great
Britain to build. / cannot conceive
that that is situation which on re-
Election will commend itself to any OF
served just now that the submarine
must develop. You could not he
said. stop the progress of humanity.
l confess that insofar as the progress
of humanity consists in inventing new
methods of warfare / would stop it
tomorrow if 1 could, and this con-
ference cannot set itself to better
work than to stop it so far as it can
be stopped. 1 believe. it can be
stopped in the matter Of submarines
if we all decide to do it.
| Relies on Coincidence.
"I believe the conscience of mankind
would help us. 1 believe the public
opinion of the world would be on
our side. But If we cannot do it. then
let US thoroughly realize that permits
sion for submarines is not only an
increase to the burdens of the tax
Ipaying world. it not only adds to the
cost Of the navies by the ships il
creates. but it adds greatly to the
cost of -navies at all events in coun-
tries which are threatened by other
peoples submarines: it adds greatly
to the cost of those navies by the non
military organization, so to speak
which it requires to have ready. and
it adds largely to the number OF
Estates which can potentially and
without any cost in battleships and