Evening star., 1928-11-25
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

ME pdoSdSc VI tlIIle has OIlIy
served to add new emphasis to
the importance of the Armistice
i day speech of President Coolidge
and to disclose with growing
clarity the European repercussions Of
this address. In point of fact, unless
the unexpected happens and President
elect Hoover before or after March
makes some sensational repudiation of
the Coolidge doctrine, Europe will un-
mistakably continue to regard the Cool
idge declaration as the key to Ameri-
can foreign policy.
In examining the European repercuS-
sions of the Presidents statements
there are certain facts which have to
be accepted at once. It would, for ex-
ample, be idle to attempt to disguise
the fact that the speech gave Europe
shock, the consequences of which are
only slowly being disclosed. In London
and Paris, at least, it was regarded as
the most unfriendly single utterance
from an American official source since
the close of the war. In Europe gen.
orally, it was regarded as banishing the
last hope of any present American CO.
operation with Europe
For Britain the Presidents words
foreshadow real naval competition.
Ever since the close of the war there
has subsiSted in England the hope
and indeed in many quarters the con-
viction-that the American naval ex-
pansion was a temporary affair and
that with the passing of time we should
slip back to our old position of salts
field inferiority in naval strength.
The British have never believed in
the United States as a naval power.
They have never been shaken in the
least in their conviction that naval SUI
premacy was at once the inherent right
and the patent necessity of their own
country. Even the Washington confer
ence, with its promulgation of the
principle of parity, failed to shake this
conviction. Geneva and the Coolidge
conference were the best evidences of
British opinion.
Supremacy Spells Disaster.
But the Coolidge speech at last COM
pels British appreciation of the fact
that the United States means to ac-
quire parity, and not merely paper
parity but that equality In tonnage
which from the British naval point of
view means actual supremacy in the
fighting line. The last hope of stav-
ing of this event, which spells disaster
for British policy, expires with the
PfeSldentS words.
To the American this prospect seems
natural and normal, in fact relatively
unirnportant, but to the average Eng
lishman it means not merely naval
but political revolution. When we
have completed our ship construction
program it will no longer be possible
for the British feet to serve British
policy as it has served it, in the main,
fhF0a at TtH I1a
next war between Great Britain and
any country, British control of the sea
will depend quite as much upon Amer
ican policy as on British strength. BY
insisting upon the rigid application of
maritime law, we would be able to
render practically ineffective any Brit
ish blockade, since our insistence would
be backed by our naval strength.
American parity does not, however,
simply break the back of the tradition
al policy Of Great Britain, it fatally
compromises the whole scheme of the
League of Nations to maintain peace.
This League scheme rests upon the
employment Of the British fleet to en-
force both economic and financial
blockade against any nation pronounce
ed an aggressor by the Geneva body
II Germany attacks Poland or Italy
Jugoslavia, it is by blockade rather
than military operations that the
League hopes to intervene.
But with an American fleet equal in
strength to the British, ready to sup
port an American policy which refuses
to recognize the legal or the moral war
rant of the League, obviously the whole
League program falls to the ground.
Germany or Italy, in the imaginary
cases suggested, could appeal to the
United States to defend the freedom
of the seas, and in practice to challenge
the right of the League to blockade
their shores, an dthe League powers
might find themselves face to face with
the United States.
End to Disarmament.
AS long as we continue to stay out
of the League our feet constitutes an
effective limitation upon all League ma
chinery designed to enforce its deci-
sions. But the Coolidge pronouncement
has even deeper implications: in fact,
1t puts definite end to all chance
of real disarmament in Europe for an
indefinite period of time. The fact
that we are now undertaking to carry
out program of naval construction
which involves vast expenditures and
enormous expansion of actual strength
furnishes every armed power in Europe
for relying upon its military establish
ment and for continuing to strengthen it.
France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Jugo-
slavia. Rumania, Italy-all the nations
which feel themselves in exposed po-
SitionS-will find in the American eX-