The Washington herald., 1922-02-13
THREE NATIONS SHARE NAVAL
POWER UNDER NEW TREATY
Sea Supremacy no Longer Rests With Britain,
Says Sullivan.
By MARK SULLIVAN.

milestone in evolution, and its end
ing affords a convenient stopping
point to pause and take stock OF the
place in the world which the United
States now occupies. Evolution In
the relation of the nations of the
world to one another has been-go-
ing on very rapidly since the LIST OF
August, 1914. What might have con-
sumed generations OF more orderly
history has been compressed into
few years.
At all times there is a position In
the world which is occupied by a
dominant power. In a more re-
stricted sense tire power holding
this post is frequently spoken of as
mistress of the seas"-a phrase
which is reasonably accurate. mas
much as world dominance has prac-
tically always gone hand in hand
with naval and commercial DON'T
nance on the sea Germany's phrase
for this world position of dominance
was "a place in the sun" 1t was
that place that Germany sought TO
take from Great Britain: and 1t Is
Germany's lack of success and other
Incidents attending her effort that
led to all the dislocation out of
which we are just emerging.
Elements of Power.
This position of dominance Is held
by virtue of three elements Of power.
Whatever nation at any time has
these elements combined has doml-
nance. The three elements are, first,
supremacy in mercantile shipping ;
second. supremacy in finance, in the
sense of being the greatest reser-
voir of wealth, and through that
being the greatest lending nation
in the world: and, finally, suprem-
acy in armed strength on the sea.
Whatever nation combines these
three has the position that Germany
coveted.
For close to two centuries Grea,
Britain held this position. Germany
wanted 1t and went after it. She
did not get It; bur. as oTten hap
pens. it went. or at least started to
go to a nation which was in the be-
ginning a disinterested observer
namely. America. America did not
covet this position nor envy its pos
session by Great Britain. 1t was
true there were some who felt that.
in the course of time. due to natural
forces and through the ordinary
processes of peace, the post OF
power would leave Great Britain
and come to this nation. The late
Ambassador Page was one who saw
this trend. and he speaks of it In
his letters. which are just now De-
ing published. Mr.. Page, however
-. -
evolution. These orderly processes
were suspended. and the trend was
enormously accelerated blythe war
OF the three elements OF dominance
the first lost by Great Britain was
that OF the greatest lending nation in
the world. When the war was only
few months old Great Britain's ne
cessities had caused her to call in
her money from all over the world.
Before II vas a year old she had
begun to borrow enormous sums
chiefly from US. Very shortly we
ceased to be what We had always
been-a borrowing nation. Before
the war we owed some five or six
billions of dollars abroad and used
to pay out about s3oo.ooo.o0o a year
in interest. By the end of the war
we had completely and strikingly re-
versed that position. Instead of our
owing money 10 Europe. Europe owed
US upwards of $4,000. 900. 900. and we
were incomparably the greatest lend
ing nation in the world.
As respects the second element
namely. supremacy In mercantile
shipping Great Britain continued to
hold the dminance; in fact. she hold:
it yet. At the beginning of the war
We were a negligible factor in the
worlds mercantile shipping. We had
less than 10 per cent of II. and Great
Britain had more than half of 1t. But
with a true instinct for the essence
Of the thing she was after, Germany
began to sink Great Britain's mercan-
tile fleet During the war the Ger
man submarines destroyed close to
half of Great Britain's shipping
Great Britain could not replace this
shipping as fast as the Germans de-
stroyed it., She could not spare her
man power for building mercantile
ships. Such man power as she could
spare for shipbuilding at all went into
the yards that were building war
ships.
In this plight Great Britain be-
sought US to become a great mercan-
tile shipbuilding nation. At her re-
quest, and in order to help her win
the war, we erected plants for mer-
camille shipbuilding which in the ag-
gregate are much larger than Great
Britain's. BY the end Of the war we
had begun to approximate Great Brit
ain's strength in mercantile shipping
and we had a shipbuilding plant
which, IL we had chosen to use 1t to
its full capacity. could easily and
quickly have outdistanced Great
Britain.
As to armed naval strength, the
end of the war found Great Britain
practically as dominant as ever
During the war she had added great
" to her strength In warships- with
the ending of the~war. however. Great
Britain allowed her building OF war
ships to lapse, and at the same time
we began a formidable program Of
naval construction. By the time the
Washington conference came we had
begun to approximate Great Britain's
strength.
The situation. therefore. at the time
the Washington conference was
opened was this: The three elements
which compose world dominance were
about equally divided between Great
Britain and the United States. We
had the financial supremacy incontes-
tably. The supremacy in mercantile
shipping. actual or potential, was
about equally divided. The supremacy
in naval strength was still with Great
Britain.