Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-12-02
Conference Agreeing on Naval
Limitations but Apart on
China Questions.
BRANDS ELOQUENT SPEECH
Frances Need of Strong Army, Due
to Fear Of German Aggression,
ConVinclnqIy Set Forth-Tax
Bill Becomes Law and
Congress AdJourns.
BY EDWARD w. PIcKARD

- ONCORD and discord both were
~ apparent in the armament confer
ence last week. 1t appeared the
Hughes plan for naval holiday and
limitation would soon be accepted
formally almost exactly as he pro-
posed it. Great Britain indors0 the
1858" ratio without reservation and
made it known that she Desired only
to suggest some modification of the
submarine and replacement features
of the plan asia whole. The Jap
anese, though still arguing that they
should lave 70 per cent Of the naval
strength of Great Britain and the
Unfted States, evidently were pre-
PARED to yield with the expectation
of some concessions in their favor
relative to China. But the British, at
home, already are growing impatient.
AS soon as the Hughes plan was given
out the admiralty stopped work on
battleships under construction. Thurs
day it announced that unless a de-
cision relative to naval limitation
were reached by the conference with
In two weeks, work on the battleships
would be resumed before Christmas
The admiralty may have been infu-
enced in this by the fact that u
congress adjourned without ordering
cessation of work on our new ships.
AS for the discord, which unfortu-
nately exists, 1t arises over two SUBJ
jects-land armament limitation and
China. Concerning the reduction of
armies the i'll feeling is between
France and England and is being
sedulously fostered by certain British
correspondents now in Washington,
notably H. G.. Wells, who brazenly ad-
mits that he is doing his "own small
best to exacerbate it, his avowed
reason being that "a brisk quarrel
and some plain speaking may clear
the air for a better understanding"
n REMIER BRAND, in a wonder
/ full address, told the conference
and the world just why France dare
not now reduce her land force too far.
Without hesitation he set forth frank
" his country's fears of Germany,
first, and of Russia, more remotely.
With facts and figures he made plain
the possibility that Germany might
again and almost within a day be-
come a powerful and dangerous mill
tary nation, and that a considerable
portion Of the German people look for
ward to this he showed by quotations
from Ludendorff, who still has a large
following. BRAND did not fail to give
generous praise to Wirth's government
and admitted there were many people
in Germany, especially among the
working classes, who want to work
and want no more war. The Ger
many they represent, he said, France
would do all in her power to help.
But, he said, until there was a
@moral disarming'' as well as a phys
zeal in Germany, and unless France
was assured of the continued support
of the United States and Great Brit
ain, France could not lay herself open
to attack by Germany. "We have to
know" he said, ''that France Is not
morally isolated, that she still has
with her the men of good will and
the hearts of all people who have
fought with her on the same battle
field"
AS for the charge that BRAND and
the French who follow him have a
hidden design to install in Europe
a sort of middle supremacy. this, the
premier said, as the most painful,
hea%rt-rending and cruel thing a
Frenchman can hear"
It is impossible, much as n would
like to do so, to quote more of M.
Brands eloquent speech. Suffice it
to say that to an unprecedented mind