The New York herald., 1921-12-24
Balfour, Denying Claims,
Says Craft Is Greatly
Overestimated.
RECALLS WARS HORRORS
Italian Delegate Favors Fol-
lowing Spirit of U. S. Proposal
No Agreement Reached.

in the naval committee Of the Wash
ington conference. Admiral de Bon Of
France. Arthur '. Balfour, head OF
the British group. and Senator Schan-
ger Of Italy being the only partici-
pants.
The official communique issued by
the committee showed that no action
was taken, although Admiral de Bor
declared the conference could not
reasonably" limit submarine con-
struction at all; but that II it did
10000 tons is the absolute minimum
for all the navies which may want tc
have submarine force"
For the British Mr.. Balfour reiterated
and extended arguments already adj
vanced by Lord Leo for total abolish
ment Of submarines. lie admitted. how
ever. that 'the British Empire has no
hope of getting any important support in
the course OF this conference adding:
II do earnestly trust that our debates
may so beyond tho limits Of this room
or even of public session
| Senator Schanxer insisted that the
conference was confronted by u SUBJ
stantially technical difference of opin-
! ion" as to the defensive value of SUBJ
marines. The Italian delegation felt
| that the problem should be examined
subsequently in a wider conference" he
said. before any action toward abolish
ment OF underwater craft could be un-
dertaken.
l.
BaIfour Anscrs de Bon.
For the present" Senator Schanzer
added, "one point Is clear in our minds
and that is that the best cours. would
be to follow even in this case the spirit
Of the American proposal and c"nse-
quently to limit submarines 10 the
measure strictly necessary Tor the ends
o. purely defensive naval policy
! Admiral de Bon took exception to y
portion Of MIR. Balfour's remarks which
the French officer regarded as unputinr
to hlri desire to support lito theory
that submarines had a right to destroy
merchant vessels after saving the
crews. Ne,t.ei he nor the French Gov
erninent he'll tEat view. he aa.;.
| Mr.. Balfour replied that he had not
! intended to ''mlsrepresent Admiral dc
Bon.' but had attempted to show that
II the submarine was to play ''the great
role In future wars which Admiral de
Bonihad suggested in his speech 1t could
| do so only by resort to extreme methods,
| for II was futile to suppose submarines
would make a practice OF stopping mer-
chant ships and placing prize crews on
board 10 take them into. port"
Admiral &c Bon opened the Gebat,
with . long address TO the committee, call
Ing attention to the opposing views as &c
submarines expressed yesterday by LORD
Lee and the report Of the American ad.
visory committee. But for certain diff.
ferences Of opinion" in the naval com.
mittee, he said, these two presentations
might be regarded as having almost "ex'
hausted" debate.
| As to the usefulness OF submarines
| against warcraft. Admiral de Bon re.
called that France lost three battle
ships. five cruisers and had severa
other ships torpedoed during the war
losing 10000 tons In fighting craft In
all from submarine attack. He sale
Italy and Great Britain had lost battle
| craft In the same way, and that in ad
6ition all three nations were compelled
to erect defensive systems against
U-boats which certainly had an influ
ence toward weakening the genera
forces OF the nations engaged"
Powerful Coast Defense.
The Admiral argued that Germany
| had maintained her entire coast in
tact" because her submarine force hat
made approach to the mine field pro
lection really dangerous while in tn,
Adriatic submarines also formed on,
| OF the most powerful means OF actor
for the enemy" Bombardment of Turk
ish Notifications at the Dardanelles
he added. had been "hampered" b,
enemy submarines and paid for the
efforts with the loss OF several ships.
'In word" Admiral de Bon said
"the submarine has proved it's worth al
I q means OF attack against varships q.
In the protection OF coasts"
U-boats had shown thensclvcs "espe
ciaIly efficient" the Admiral said
against the merchant marine. Wha
had struck terror to all peoples" IN
added, had been the German attack o'
neutrais and acknowledgements. not th
attack on merchant vessels OF thci
enemies.
"rn fact" he said, "it always ha
been one of the most effective means o
seriously orippling ones adversary" q
attack enemy merchant craft, and th
French officer thought 'it would Away
seom legitimate 10 do So
M. taking an extreme case, one nigh
consider II possible TO bring ones ad
versary 70 tho point OF yielding by thi
process. would Il not be less cruel ant
less wasteful OF human life than militar,
operations which would arrive at tn
same result by direct application o
foree?" Admiral de Bon inquired. "On
might protest against this Interpretation
but such would be the result of "A block
ade, which is a legitimate practice. ant
It's effects would not be peculiar TO sub
marines"
Useful 70 small Fleets.
The French Admiral said the Cern,a
suhInarne campaign had been "eimc
almost ezclssiyeiy AZ neral effect" |
The beginning, and that Il was onl
later that they took into considerable
the material results" OF their cam
raign. lie insisted that war agalns
snomy commercial ships could hav
been waged legitimately, although b
made no attempt 10 formulate doc
! trine" as TO the process. Fruits o
subma rlne campaign confined to ''hon
orabie warfare" would have bee
smaller, he added, but II was impossibl