New Britain herald., 1927-07-13

TO get around a green table and
talk sense After much effort the
soviets were induced to send dele
CATION to Geneva and it looked as
ii something substantial might &C
crue. The British, however, used a
large sized monkey-wrench Just
about this time. Came the Pekin
raid, the ARGOS raid. the break with
Russia; the evidences of British
imperialism in China. Instead of
modifying Russia and bringing
a change in conditions complained
about, Sir Austen Chamberlain re-
fused dealings with the Russian
delegates at the economic confer
door to the very people who might
have been made to see the value of
common sense. Result: The unof-
fetal warfare between the two ma
tions continues. The Communists
are not liked, of course; but the
British have not been above criti-
cism. The soviets cannot get along
with them any more than can the
delegates at the naval conference.
Suffering from the effects of the
general strike of last year, the Bald
win cabinet has been doing its
mightiest to instigate a class war.
The sensible method would have
been to work for cooperation be-
tween capital and labor, as has
been so notably done in the United
States; the British government went
in the opposite direction, and ia
thered trades union bill which is
believed capable of breaking up the
unions altogether. Result; The
likelihood of more devastating class
wars in the future When the Con-
serva.ives get their licking at the
next general election the entire
house of cards will fall to the
ground.
If the three powers sitting at
Geneva cannot agree upon warship
building the blame will lie with the
Baldwin government; suspicion and
distrust will be a worldwide harvest
Last March President Coolidge gave
it as his opinion that the best inter
ests of the world would be served
by depending upon a minimum OF
ships for protection; that he was op-
posed to unlimited naval strength.
After having been fooled at the
1921 Washington conference this
was rather a cool attitude for this
country to take. After the Washing
ton conference ii was England
which by elevating guns and build
ing cruisers and auxiliary craft
took relative position above the
5-5-3 standard. Counting modern
cruisers built. building. authorized
and appropriated for, here is the
table of present cruiser armament:
United States, IS. tonnage 1885,
900: Britain, Ga, tonnage, 5S7,41o;
Japan, 80, tonnage 247665.
In addition, Great Britain has
many swift. large and subsidized
passenger lines with gun mounts
built into their framework. Some
time ago it annexed the White Star
line from American owners willing
TO sell The United States has only
a few vessels of this type.
What Britain means by protect
ing her ocean trade routes, as the
Chicago Tribune aptly says, is
plan to dominate the seas.
Such ideas altogether depend
upon which party happens to be in
power in q ration. The Macdonald
government a few years ago made
plans to abandon the Singapore
naval base; but when the Baldwin
government got into power the de-
cision was made to strengthen in
stead of abandoning this base,
greatly to TIL surprise of the Japan
ese.
Let the LIBERAL combina-
ton gain power in Britain and all
these fine-spun plans will go to
naught. A naval conference, or any
other kind of conference, at such a
time would get somewhere. The
present British politicians are i'm
possible. They don't even represent
the country any more for all signs
point to the fact that were a general
election held at once they would
be wiped from power.