The Washington times., 1929-04-23
u. S. Ready to Match
Every Reduction Made
BY Navies of World
BY GEORGE r. HOLMES
International News service


Having placed Americas disar'
Hnament cards on the table at
Geneva. face up, Washington sat
back today and waited for the
worlds great naval powers to
match them.
Stripped Of six-cylinder words and
the niceties of Of dipIamatic express
sion, the American offer amounts to
this:
Reduce your armament, and we
viii match you-ship for ship, gun
FOR gun. The sky's the limit,
But one condition IL thrown about
the American offer. That is that
the reduction to be accomplished
must affect all classes Of ships,
from dreadnaughts to submarines,
from battle cruiers to destroyers.
Only once before in the worlds
history has such a bold challenger
been flung out to the world powers.
That was nearly nine years ago In
Washington, when Charles e..
Hughes, as Secretary of State, al'
most gave the statesmen Of the
world appolexy by dramatically pro-
posing to them, "scrap your capital
ships. and limit the smaller ones"
Every. Glass Hit
This time, it is something more
than mere limitation that the
American Government has proposed
through Hugh S. Gibson. speaking
for President Hoover at Geneva.
What is being proposed is actual
reduction OF naval lighting craft,
affecting every class of vessel
afloat.
Admittedly, the American offer
applies the acid test to the sincerity
Of the great powers, Britain, France,
Japan and Italy, in their frequently
and piously expressed desires for
naval disarmament. For more than
five years now. the powers have
met at Geneva under the auspices
OF the League of Nations and made
heroic speeches about the Utopia Of
world disarmament. while their
naval yards have been working over
time on the construction OF those
vessels which were not limited in
the Washington conference treaties.
In sandiot parlance. Ambassador
Gibson has now invited them to put
up or shut up.
Are Well Timed
Tho American proposal was nicely
timed. As Ambassador Glib n
pointed out, fifty-odd nations have
just signed the multi-lateral treaty
renouncing war as an instrument Of
national policy. And IL they are sin.
cere in this, he emphasized, there ap-
pears now no plausible reason why
they should not refrain from build
ing and maintaining naval establish
ments beyond those needed for or
dinary defense and police purposes.
The last naval reduction confer
ence between the United States. Great
Britain, and Japan broke down be.
cause Great Britain insisted upoA
severely limiting 10,000.ton cruisers.
which she does not need, and estab-
fishing virtually no limitation upon
smaller cruisers. With her coaling
stations and naval bases all over the
world, Great Britain has no particu.
lar need of the larger.type cruisers.
The smaller type serve her just as
well. On this other hand, the larger
cruisers are necessary to the United
States because of the long distances
between American bases, Hawai- 10
the Philippines, for instance.
Demand by France
The Washington conference partly
broke down because France would
not agree to any limitation in sub.
marines. France wanted to build up
. great force of submarines to offset
Britain's superiority in surface fight
ing ships.
To get around these barriers, the
United States now proposes to make
the reduction applicable to every type
az naval fighting craft and to work
u out on the basis Of relative needs.
That is, If Great Britain decides she
needs so many 7.500.ton cruisers, the
American quota will be worked out
on b lesser number of 10000 ton
cruisers more adaptable to her pecu-
mar needs.
TO each according to his needs, /"
is roughly the American proposal