Evening star., 1928-10-07
ANCLO.FRENCH NAVAL PACT
BLOCKS HOPE OF ARMS CUT
New European Entente" Credited to
Accord, Leaves International Atmos.
phere Poisoned With Mistrust.

able to rise in any conference for the
limitation of armamentS and repeat the
arguments by which Lord Cecil has so
often sought to persuade the French TO
drop conscription and come over to the
American and British system Of volun-
tary enlistment. So much the Baldwin
cabinet has ceded permanently.
Election Nears.
Since "a general election is rapidly
approaching in England, 1t Is almost
certain that national judgment will be
had on the whole naval policy, for It
bids fair to occupy equal rank with
the well nigh complete failure Of the
Tories to solve the problems of business
depression and expanding unemploy-
ment. Pending such a plebiScite, too.
there is every reason why the people Of
the United States should not permit
present evaporation to hurry them into
program of naval construction which
would insure open competition.
After all the whole Anglo American
naval dispute Is purely academic. If
George v or Calvin Coolidge we're either
of them today indulging in the sort of
talk which William II employed in the
critical years before 1914, there might
be reason for people on either side of
the Atlantic to become alarmed over
the use that was to be made of the
ships under discussion. But nothing of
| the sort is heard. We have no Tirpitz
and Winston Churchill is now troubling
| his fluid brain with questions of income
tax and death duties, not problems Of
power calculated in terms of tonnage.
| What is serious is the very real and
the very honest suspicion which exists
In the minds OF both peoples, for it Is
| just as unmistakable in London as in
Washington. Neither people knows
| what the other Is up to and neither
| likes the method and manners of the
other. The British press gave to the
Geneva Conference the appearance of
| an international debate in which every
British proposal looking to the reduc-
ton Of the size and costs of ships was
met by an arrogant American veto.
| On the other hand, for our press the
British thesis was constant rejection
of the principle of parity. Both peo-
Piles accordingly feel that the other Is
unreasonable and overbearing.
| America Holds Cards.
Nevertheless the fact remains that
| the cards are in American hands. II
we ever choose to read into British
policy deliberate challenge and decide
to accept this imagined def" our
financial power to outbuild Is beyond
! debate. And that, after all. is the su-
preme justification Of policy Of calu
and even of patience.
| All this dress parade OF Anglo
French solidarity does not lessen the
value of one card in the American
hand, when these nations which are
today indulging in such highly pro-
fessional flights of traditional diplomacy
come, as they must, to discuss the prac-
tical questions of debts and Dawes
plan. The Middle West will not have
to lie awake nights to worry over the
| possible combination of British and
French fleets. much less the inmutable
| alliance of British and French naval
experts at Geneva, but neither London
nor Paris, can ignore the importance
| of Middle Western decisions when the
debt question replaces the naval on the
| international calendar.
| In a poker game. for that Is what all
| this affair comes down to, the man who
holds four aces, most of the chips and
the only available gun, can afford a
certain amount of philosophical de-
tachment in watching the efforts Of his
comrades to make use of that further
| American detail, which is lie bluff"
To win, only three things are necessary,
not to drop the cards on the floor, part
with the chips or lose the gun, while to
get angry would be, shall one say, lex
cessive'?
Copyright. 1921