The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-12-25
DEEPEST British Idea of
Ruling Waves Can Not
Be Overthrow.
THRICE NEAR DEFEAT
England Never Will Agree to
Play Second Fiddle
at Sea.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
scripps- Howard Foreign Editor

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25.-Three
times saved from overthrow by the
very skin of his teeth in the last
thirty days, Premier Ramsay Nc
Donald of Great Britain will go into
the London naval conference seri-
ously namstrung, so far as his being
able TO put through his own pre-
ferred program is concerned.
While both Liberals and Conserva-
tives of late have been rather driven
by events into accepting the prin-
ciple of naval parity with the
United States, it is only necessary
TO cast back a very short while to
see how deeply even the most pro-
gressive of them felt on the subject
of Britannia continuing to rule the
waves.
What the Lobar premier faces at
the coming conference is the task,
on the one hand, of working out a
formula which will satisfy Amer
jca's demand for naval equality,
while not running afoul, on the
other, of the Conservative-Liberal
almost religious conviction that
Britain must remain the dominant
Gea power or perish.
Between Devil and Sea
Thus does Macdonald stand pre-
cariously perched between the devil
of Uncle Sans pretensions and the
deep blue sea of political defeat II
he goes too far granting them.
On Nov. 27, or less than a month
ago, only the absence of many
Conservatives and Liberals from
the House of Commons saved the
government defeat on the new dole
bill. The vote was 237 to 167.
Five days later the government
came through by a still narrower
squeak when vote on the unem-
ployment insurance measure melted
only thirteen majority.
Last Friday came third near
defeat, the closest call of all. A
vote on the coal mines bill gave the
government only eight majority and
observers seem agreed that Mac
Donald surely would almost have
been oVerthrOWn but for the fact
that both Liberals and ConserYa-
tiveS are agreed that now is not g
favorable time for a new election.
Stands on Shaky Perch
Labor muSters only 286 seats in
the house of commons, while the
conservatives are 200 strong and
the liberals So. The slightest shift
in the voting would suffice to throw
Macdonald out, and this may be
expected the moment his opposition
believes some gesture of his lacks
popular support.
And even Premier Macdonald is
not unaware that the British
masses still regard their navy as
pretty much their all in all. In
fact. he took occasion while in this
country to warn Americans to this
effect, signifying that he might
have trouble carrying out his plans.
Even Lord Robert Cecil, the most
peace loving of them all, outside
Macdonald himself probably, back
In 1919 wrote to Colonel House,
President wilson's friend, saying he
was concerned greatly over reports
he had heard that Americas am
bition Is to have navy at least as
large" as Britain's. Said he:
81 think you will be lieve me
when 1 say that I am pasSionately
DESTROYS of Anglo-American friend
ship but I must freely ADM;
that II 1 we're British minister OF
the navy and / saw that British
naval safety was being threatened
even by America, l should have to
recommend to my fellow country
men to spend their last shilling IN
bringing our fleet up to the point
which I was advised was necessary
for safety"
Limits to Concessions
Seven years later Lord Cecil re-
signed from the British cabinet be-
caused he disagreed with the policy
of the extremists of the big navy
crowd of his admiralty, but from
that to backing Macdonald in AM
drastic naval reduction program
which would leave the United State:
as Britain's absolute equal as sea-
power, is a still longer step.
Much water has gone over the
dam since 1919. Considerable ha!
gone under the bridge even since
the Geneva deadlock and f1asco O.
1927. And all the signs point Il
some sort of Anglo-American nava
understanding for 1880.
Nevertheless. it requires might!
little imagination to see that there
are very definite limits to which
Macdonald can go at London anC