Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-18
NAVAL EXPANSION PLANS
MAY CAUSE NEW FARLEY
Other Powers Know Failure of L. S. TO
Fix Date to Start Building Is
Opening for Agreement

stances, the most decisive of which
/ was the World War. Americans are
not consciously seeking to undermine
I our old predominance on the seas or
! in shipping or in foreign trade or in
! ternational finance. They have been
driven into these spheres of activity
mainly under the pressure of legiti-
mate ambitions and the events that
! between 1914 and 1918 turned the
whole world topsy-turvy."
Idea of Working Together.
( The Sunday Times goes on to de
/ plore that between Britain and
! America there has been during the
! last few years a scarcity of oDpor.
tunity for working together" Right
/ there is where official Washington
/ takes issue with London. The Cool
/ laSe administration feels that we gave
! Britain classic opportunity for
working together" at Geneva last
summer and that John Bull ignored
II. The United States. President Cool.
idge and his international advisers
| point out, is bound to explore the IN.
DERIVING reasons for Great Britain's
refusal 10 work together" with us
III the direction of cruiser limitation.
IN searching for the explanation.
the Washington authorities have
come TO certain conclusions which
they hold to be unanswerab In
| me hrst place, they do not admit
the soundness of the British argu
| ment that because of the far-fiung
BRUSH Empire, the British need
more cruisers than America needs.
| We nave far flung" interests to pro-
tect. too. We have enormous con-
tnental coast lines on the Atlantic
and the Pacific. We have the Pana-
ma Canal Zone, Porto Rico. the
Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines
TO look after. There is Alaska, too.
ana last, but far from least. there is
the vast and growing sea borne COM
merce of the United States.
Inc American Government is of
necessity compelled to ask itself
against what power Britain can pos
sibly be building but the next strong
est nation at sea-namely. ourselves.
Japan cannot threaten the British.
The combined sea powers of Europe
cannot menace them. Between all
of those powers there is less cruiser
strength than John Bull himself pos
sesses. Uncle Sam can hardly help
bordering, under these circum-
I stances. whether Britain is not main
tanning her great fleet for the sole
purpose some day of trying conclu-
| Slons with the fleet of the United
States.
Position of Lord Cecil.
Lord Robert Cecil, the British states
man who assails his own government
for causing the failure of the Geneva
conference, thinks America is billing
up naval ornaments because of the
! hostility of this country to Britain's
conception of the rights of belliger-
ents at sea as against neutralS Our
great 1916 building program was born
largely of American determination to
put this country in position to resist
illegitimate interference with our
maritime privileges and necessities in
war to which we might not be a
party. Lord Robert Cecil thinks John
Bull ought Ito let Uncle Sam know
that If Americans desired it, we should
be quite ready TO discuss the whole
question of rights at sea, just as we
should be equally prepared to discuss
schemes OF international arbitration
and the outlawry of war. Like limi-
tations of armament, such a discus.
sion would be a step leading to the
peace mind and not to the war mind"
The underlying significance of the
new American naval program is that
the world, for the most part, did not
believe we would ever project so cost
lY a scheme IT considered us too
stoutly welded to the Coolidge econ
Omy idea. II did not think we would
ever again spend $3.50 600 600 on war
ships, except under dire prOvocat ton
The world has had a rude awakening.
copyright. 1927