Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-07
BR|TA|N'S CHANGE
OF FRONT BATTLING
U. S. Puzzled as to Why Brit
ish Attended Farley When
Aims ConfIiCted.
EY DREW PEARSON,

programs which befuddled the con
eluSion of the naval conference at
Geneva this past week there stood
out two all-important and unanswered
questions. First why did Great
Britain ever consent to attend lin.
ttation conference when she expected
to build? Second, why and against
what power does Great Britain need
her giant cruiser fleet.
These questions were asked by AM
bassador Hugh Gibson during the last
plenary session on Thursday and they
have been asked by Secretary Kellogg
throughout the conference. Why.
they wonder. should Great Britain
have Knocked n dent in Anglo Ameri-
can relations and seriously retarded
the cause of disarmament by attend
ing naval limitation conference when
she did not expect to limit?
The answer is all the more difficult
because before President Coolidge is.
sued the conference invitations, Ad-
miral Hilary p. Jones had gone to
England and discussed the matter
carefully with the British admiralty.
The admiralty welcomed the confer
ence idea and believed definite prog
fess could be made toward limitation.
Therefore. when Admiral Jones and
The American delega ton heard the
British proposals at Geneva they
gould scarcely conceal their astonish-
ment. Why, they asked. did the Brit.
ash admiralty change it's mind in q
Few months? The change, they have
concluded. can only he explained by
an ancient bitter rivalry within the
british navy and by the failure of
me United States to support the
British policy in China.
British Shelve Beatty.
When Admiral Jones conferred with
the admiralty in London last Winter
tIari Beatty was in supreme control.
but before the Geneva conference
opened, Beatty had been shelved to
y more or less honorary position and
replaced by Admiral Sir Charles r.
Madden, brother-in-law of Earl Jelli.
coe. Beatty had been favorable to AID.
miral Jones ideas, but both Jellicoe
fnd Madden disagree with Beatty
upon almost every policy within the
British navy.
Jellicoe and Madden belong to what
Is known as the Fisher naval group,
Whlle Beatty is an ardent admirer of
The Beresford contingent. The two
groups take their names from Lord
tharleS Beresford, who advocated gun.
merry as the most important factor in
the British navy, and from Sir John
Flsher, who argued that the most i'm.
portant factor was the engine control
ling a ships speed. On one occasion
It was reported that these two dis
unguished sea lords became so irate
with each other that they actually
crashed their vessels during target
practices.
1alIinnn k%ry s,,a,
this feud, became even greater rivals
after the battle of Jutland, following
which Beatty replaced Jellicoe as COM
mander of the grand feet. American
naval men are convinced that the re.
cent replacement of Beatty by Mad
den, with Jellicoe as adviser, caused
the British admiralty to reverse the
policy it had outlined to Admiral
Jones.
Demands Still Puzzling.
But why the admiralty felt a cruiser
fleet of 20 instead of the present fleet
of 48 to be absolutely essential, and
why TIE Baldwin cabinet allowed the
admiralty to disrupt the Geneva con.
ference in order to secure that pro-
gram, are questions which still puzzle
American naval men. The answer,
they believe, is combination of fac.
tors. One of these once again lies in
admiralty personalities.
Jellicoe, one of the conference dele
gates, had just spent FIVE years as
Governor of New Zealand, which is
very much afraid of Japan. and
which, next to Australia. spends more
per capita on naval defense than any
other country in the world. Ad-
miral Sir Frederick Field, another
delegate and second in admiralty
rank to Madden, commanded the
cruise Of a special squadron which
visited Australia and New Zealand for
the purpose of selling" the fleet to
the dominions He came back con-
WINGED that the South Seas needed
greater defense. Also he came back
rather indignant because Prime Min
lister Macdonald, then in Office, had
cabled him instructions that he was
TO engage in no big navy propaganda.
Field Held Opposition.
Field obeyed his orders, but waited
for the time when he could help swing
the pendulum in the opposite direc-
ton. MacDonald's labor government
also stopped work on three cruisers
and abandoned the Singapore base. All
Of which gave the admiralty added
ammunition to use with the Baldwin
government when it returned to
power.
The even more violent swing of the
pendulum toward a big navy evil
denced at Geneva is diagnosed by
American diplomats and naval experts
as due to the fact that Great Britain
is at the crossroads of her empire
and nervous concerning the future.
Britain became an empire through
control of the seas. Now that her
markets are slipping, unemployment
is large and investments in the
Orient are threatened, the Conserva-
tive government naturally falls back
upon the one weapon which has
served Britain in the past-her navy.
During nine months of Labor rule
Britain saw the specter Of diminished
sea power. Since then she has seen
her Chinese trade dwindle to almost
nothing and faced the crisis of a gen.
'eral strike which verged upon revolu-
ton. In this precarious situation the
present government believes itself to
be automatically isolated.
French Bond Weakened.
The bond with France lacks the
strength il had during the early post
war years. Still more important, the
hope entertained by many British
statesmen that the Washington cen
ference would be the beginning of a
new era of Anglo.American co-opera-
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