New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
Varying Views ON Submarines
AS Told i'm Naval Committee
Statements of Delegates, Reported by Official
Iommunique, Showing How Hughes Offered Rad
ical American Cut, With Cooperation of British

oe CQHtroileu IN those narrow waters
so that must assume, if it be true
that France. in the crisis contemplated
by M. BRAND is going to call upon
her ancient allies for assistance in her
hour of need, it is upon our anti-sub-
marine craft that she will be depend
ent for the possibility of that call be-
ing obcyed. How is that consistent
with the building of this hure mass
of submarines which anybody who
looked at the matter from strictly
strategical and tactful point of view
would certainly say from the very
geographical situation was built
against Great Britain %
Senator Schanzer spoke as follows
"My colleagues are acquainted with
the principles upon which, according
to our opinion, the solution of the
problem of naval ornaments must be
based. These principles are
the parity Of the Italian fleet with all
other large neighboring fleets and the
reduction of naval armaments to the
quantity strictly necessary for de-
fensive naval policy
THE above principles have been ap-
piled in regard to capital ships; they
must also be applied with regard to
the other categories of naval arma-
mont.
MAY I venture to add that in view
of the entirely special conditions of
ltaly's maritime position, we could
claim, without being accused OF ad-
vancing excessive demands, an even
greater proportion with regard to
categories other than capital ships,
such as submarines and light craft.
at may be added that the conditions
of our submarine tlotilla are absolute
ly insufficient from technical point of
view.
Despite the limited field of opera
tions in the Adriatic Sea and the prox-
unity of the enemy's naval bases from
our own (roughly 100 miles,, Italy
found during the war that her sub
marines were insufficient both with re-
gard to their field of action and to their
habitableness; in other words, they
were too small for efficient use, and
Italy is indebted to the cooperation
of French and British submarines for
having been able successfully to meet
the situation.
80 Submarines Scrapped
"Since the armistice Italy has de-
molished as many as thirty subma-
rines. She is actually left with forty
three units in active service and four
under construction, the total amount
Ing to 20250 tons. Only ten of the first
;
since they are of more than 700 tons
displacement. The others will have to
be successfully replaced.
although our naval technical au-
thorites believe that the allotment of
submarine tonnage should not neces-
sarily be prcportionate to that of cap
ital ships, and that the quota of 1900
tons for submarines, corresponding to
the American proposal of tonnage of
al
ficient, the Italian delegation is ready,
in the interest Of reduction Of arma-
ments, to accept this amount, under
the condition of parity with France.
Concerning this point we have pre-
else and categorical instructions from
our government.
"Mr. Hanihara then said the Jap
anese delegation 49,. 4. was unable,
he had to confess, to- convince itself
that the submarine was not an effec-
7 tive and necessary weapon for defense.
N he Japanese delegation hopes that
ltfhad made clear, at the tim when the
| provisional agreement was, reached be-
tween the United States, Great Britain
and Japan on the question Of the capi-
tai ship ratio, that the acceptance by
Japan of the ratio of 5-5-3 meant for
Japan considerable sacrifice Yet be-
cause of her desire to contribute tow
ard the achievement Of the great object
for which the conference had been
called Japan finally accepted the said
ratio under various great difficulties.
pared to accept the same ratio in re-
gard to submarines. That would have
given Japan $4,000 tons. So far as
Japan is concerned, this figure was
considered as the minimum amount of
submarine tonnage with which the in
sular position of Japan could be ade-
quately defended.
Felt Proposal Inadequate
THE new proposal was to allow the
United States and Great Britain 10000
tons each, while France, italy and
Japan were to maintain the status quo
IN regard to their respective submarine
! tonnage. In other words, under this
new plan Japan would be allowed to
have only $1,000 tons. That was con-
ssidered by the Japanese delegation to
be wholly inadequate for Japan's de-
fensive purposes.
felt constrained to insist upon the as
slgnment Of the tonnage proposed in
the original American project, i. e.,
$4,000 tons of submarines,
Mr. Hanihara hoped that he might
be permitted to point out that this de-
mand on the part of Japan was actuated
solely by consideration of defense
Japan was geographically SO remotely
situated that it must be evident to all
that her submarines could not constj-
tute menace against any nation.
Mr.. Sarraut stated that, in view of
the fact that the new American pro-
posal contemplated a considerable re-
ductlon in the submarine tonnage which
appeared necessary to the French gov
ernment, the French delegation could
not 60 otherwise than await instruc-
| tion.
"Mr. Balfour then said that as the
committee appeared to be a the end of
their days program he would like to
ask the chairman and his colleagues
whether technical, examination should
not be initiated of the system of naval
tons and the measurement of tonnage.
He had been brought to make this sug-
gestion by discovery, made somewhat
late in the day, that although there
had been much talk Of tons different
nations did not always mean the same
thing.
"He did not say that it mattered
very much in ordinary circumstances
which system of tonnage was EMPLOYED.
but now that international arrange
ments were heing made for the future
ne thought it eminently desirable and
almost indispensable to settle two oues
tions, first, to decide the system of
measurement of tons for incorpo ration
in the treaty, and, second, to adopt q
system which could be measured with