The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-10-15
NAVY INCREASE
FORECAST AT
1880 FARLEY
More Ships, Instead of
Fewer, Expected to Be
Constructed.
U-B0ATS TO BE SNAG
France and Italy to BaIk
at Reducing Number
of Submarines.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMs
Scripps- Howard Foreign Editor

ScrippS Howard Foreign Editor
WASHINGTON, Oct. l5.-An in.
crease in the size of the worlds lead
ing navies, not a reduction, surely
will almost follow the five power-na-
val conference scheduled to meet in
London next January.
Tonnage of capital ships and air
craft carriers having been fixed at
the Washington conference of 1891,
the London conference will devote
itself largely to the problem of limit
ing auxiliary vessels, mainly cruisers
and submarines.
That this will be no easy job al
ready is a foregone conclusion.
France and Italy are determined to
maintain considerable fleets of I'M
dersea boats and even Premier
Macdonald, eager though he is to
bring about limitation of all arma-
ments, on land and sea, admits that
Britain necessarily will have to take
into account the naval establish
ments of the two continental pow
! ers.
Won't Drop Subs
Some idea of what France and
Italy will demand in the way of
auxiliary craft may be gained by a
study of their position at Wash
ington. At that time France fatty
refused G quota of les than $780,
900 tons of cruisers, destroyers, etc,
and not less than 10000 tons of
submarines.
And Italy, offering no objection to
these figures, apparently tacitly ac-
copied them for herself, her ratio
and Frances being identical.
If these two countries repeat their
stand at Geneva, and should Britain
and the United States build up to
their allotted ratio of tons to
every ITS tons of Itay and France,
each would have approximately
257 900 tons of U-boats, or far be-
yond what either country now
possesses or cares to build.
1t seems difficult to believe that
France and Italy will insist upon
such enormous tonnages, yet the
very man who was Frances chief
delegate to the Washington confer
ence, Aristide BRAND, now Is prime
minister. And Italy, in 1921 under
Premier Monomi, and anything but
war,ike figure, has undergone a
complete transformation through
the Fascist coup d'etat of 1922 and
the appearance on the scene of
Mussolini.
MussoIini Won't Reduce
II Duce makes no secret Of his
intention to increase the fighting
strength of his army, navy and air
force to be'ready for any emergency
by 1886.
Thus the italian delegates to Lon
don hardly will be found leading
any battle royal for naval reduc-
ton. Instead, Italy as well as
France, probably will insist upon
tonnage far in excess Of that al
lowed by the present treaty ratio.
On the other side of the world
Japan is said to be determined like
wise to demand greater auxiliary
fleets than permitted under her
ratio of three to Britain'S and Amer
ica's five. She will ask for a mini
mum of 10000 tons Of U-boats, ac-
cording to report, a figure which
would mean further submarine
building by both America and Brit
ish under existing conditions.
Certainly when it comes to CRUZ
sers it is already practically certain
that America will have to build con-
siderably if she is to keep up her
end of the treaty bargain.
Even as things now stand, Bril-
tain, Japan, France and Italy all
have cruiser fleets. built and build
ing, considerably in excess Of ours,
as calculated on the existing treaty
basis.
The only scrapping Of warships
likely to be INDUCED in, therefore,
will be by the United States, which
has more destroyers than it cares
for or knows what to do with.