Evening star., 1921-11-16
LENGTHY PARLEY
N0WEXPECTED:
Cutting of Batt|eships Is Big
Step, But Many Minor
Problems Arise.
MUST FACE GAS QUESTION
Many Experts See Navies as OBJ
solete, With Airplanes and Chem
icals as Future Menace.

When Secretary Hughes, in his OPEN
ing speech at the conference on the
Limitation of armament, both startled
and gained the approval of the whole
world by going right to the heart Of
things and making a definite PROPOSE
tion in Offering in behalf of America
great reduction in warships instead
of talking generalities, as had been
etpected for the first meeting. the
first impression Of the foreign off,
cia}s here was that the conference
would be over much sooner than had
been hoped for previously:
No one had anticipated that so
clear cut plan would be presented
until certain amount of jockeying
had been gone through and the vari-
7he others.
Expect Long Conference.
However great stride was made to-
ward the hoped-for goal of small navies
by Mr.. Hughes great stroke Of open
diplomacy, those among the foreign
delegations who are more familiar with
such conferences pointed out that
tant than cutting big warships from
naval programs. the smaller questions
10 follow were both more intangible and
at the same time more technical. and
that they were the matters that would
take time in settling, so that the length
of the conference is still expected to
run we'll beyond two months, as was
the opinion before Mr.. Hughes laid his
cards on the table.
1t has been pointed out that with one
class of battleShips eliminated. then the
next type becomes the unit of potential
force, and so on down until the nation
with the best destroyer fleet would DOM
mate the high seas. 1t was shown in
if properly built for immediate CONVEX
sion. could create quite a disturbance.
These are only two Of the naval ques-
tions which, together with questions of
naval bases in the Pacific, must be
thrashed out, and it is expected that
these matters, with their many details,
will demand more time for study and
compromise than the bigger affairs.
See Menace in Chemical Warfare.
There has been expressed the be-
lief by many experts that it is only
a question of time before the navies
of the world will be made obsolete
by the ever increasing power of air
planes. Gas and poison warfare were
only In their incipiency in the late
war. but chemical experts with vision
have painted pictures Of the whole
by these new means in future war
fare. These topics are not generally
expected to take any place in pos
sible treaties, but they must be rec
ogniZed, it is believed, and it has
been suggested by certain Of the ad-
visers that committee of the pow
ers should be formed to meet from
time to time in the future. having
power to shape policies in governing
the massing Of such weapons.
>Land armament Is another factor
that must be coped with. Though it
IS not considered nearly so vital as
the naval arm, it presents more Diff
ficulties. it is felt. France, from her
geographical position. demands that
she keep an army large enough for
possible future aggression from Ger
many, whereas Great Britain, the
United States and Japan would not
need large armies for protection, ac-
cording to military experts. This
question might not be hard to deal
with. it is admitted, except for the
threat in skeleton armies.
The United States now has plans
for a national Army that could be
enrolled and trained in a fraction of
the time that it took in the late war.
This together with reserves, volun-
tary part-time training and other
such questions may come up, and the