Evening star., 1929-11-17
MANY NAVY ISSUES
AWAIT SOLUTION
Free Seas and Subs Discuss
ed and New Craft Launched
as Powers Confer.
BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.
BY Cable to The Star and the Chicago Dai
News. Copyright, 1929.

progress is being made is another ques-
ton Negotiations are being conducted
in London between Prime Minister
Ramsay Macdonald. the French, Ital-
ian and Japanese Ambassadors and the
American charge daffaireS regarding
the agenda of the conference and the
freedom Of the seas. while the afore-
said Ambassadors incidentally are con-
ferring with one another.
France and Italy are trying similarly
to negotiate at Rome. The British are
encouraging Gen. Smuts to visit Amer
ica with his proposal regarding the
freedom of the seas. which is quite OH
ferent from President Hoover'S, which
neither France nor Britain seems to
like much.
Meanwhile Germany has just launched
q new type 6-inch gun cruiser superior
to anything heretofore known ana
France will launch on Monday the
worlds most powerful cruising Suoma-
rine 1t will be convenient to consider
these related but disparate events sepa-
rately.
Hoover's sensational proposal that the
freedom of the seas be settled by eX-
empting all food ships from capture in
wartime, just as hospital ships are now
exempted. will almost certainly be re-
iected. Comment heard on all sides in
the last few days merely serves to en-
phasize the gulf between American and
European thought on this whole sub
tect. Germany and Italy tend to favor
Hoover's proposal in the abstract, put
neither seems really to believe it prac-
tical. Japan also is skeptical. AS Tor
Britain and France. which differ IN
nearly all naval matters, they seem 10
be agreed that the idea is anything out
desirable.
Arguments Against 1t.
Arguments brought against it are as
follows: It encourages aggressions, Tor
the aogressor would be free from fear
of blockade. 1t is unfair to remove the
blockade by sea while maintaining II
by land. 1t would tend TO enrlch the
neutralS at the expense OF the belilger-
entS and allow countries like the United
States to stand by and do prof1table
trade while others do the actual nght-
ing against the pact breakers ana ag-
gTesSors. One French wit goes SO 1ar
as to say that it replaces the principle
that "the flag covers the goods" by the
principle that 1.-The grain and frozen
beef cover the nitroglycerin."
Distinction between food and war
material is impossible, because oils,
fats, starchy grains and sugar are all
used for explosives. WarshlpS obllged
to pass hours alongside merchantmen
trying to certify cargoes would be ex-
posed to grave danger from enemy SUBJ
marines and airplanes.
In modern wars everybody, even
women and children, can help, and the
distinction between the comhatant and
the non -combatant is hard to draw.
What for example, are women and
children working in munitions fac
tories? 1t is an allusory attempt TO
make war humane. 1t can even be
argued that blockades are humane, be-
cause they tend to shorten wars. Rules
for war are necessary, since everybody
has signed the Kellogg pact. Finally,
Hoover's proposal is contrary to article
is of the Covenant of the League OF
Nations, which proposes that the block
ade is the best and easiest weapon
against an aggressor.
Believes In League System.
Next, it is pretty clear from the fore
going that Europe believes in the
League system and in the blockade
against pact breakers and for the pres
ent is unwilling to relinquish either.
What it mainly wants to know Is the
intentions of the United States in case
the League decided to establish block
ade against an aggressor. Does Hooyer's
proposal mean that the United States
would try to feed the offending nation,
thereby prolonging its resistance? 1t
is in this connection that Gen. SmutS
seems to desire to visit Washington
coon with the proposal that, since the
Kellogg pact distinguishes between war
as an instrument of national policy and
other war, this distinction between pub
lie and private war should be written
formally into international law.
Great Britain and the United States
both agree that the whole issue of the
freedom of the seas should be left to
future discussion, but the French still
insist on putting 1t in the agenda. II,
they say, you are going to abolish sub
marines, we must first know your in
tentions regarding blockade. 1t is
agreed apparently that the conference
shall discuss all categories of ships, in
cluding the new French and German
types, but whether this means hydro
planes, too, and whether the limitation
shall be by categories or by global tom
mage, and whether the conference
agreement shall be final or contingent
on general disarmament seems still un-
settled.
Japan and France through their am
basSadors in London seem to have yeri-
fed their agreement on two points
first, the non-abolition of submarines,
and second, that both must have larger
cruiser ratios than those of the Wash
ington treaties.
Seeks ItaIy'S Consent.
Great Britain is trying TO get Italy
10 agree, not without some show Of sue
cess. to the abolition of submarines.
Until recently Italy was saying that
she would never relinquish submarines
until Britain relinquished Gibraltor
and Suez, which command Italys
extra Mediterranean communications,
but she now seems to hesitate, argu-
ing that If Britain blockades Italy, de-
tense is hopeless and submarines use
less, but If it is France 1t would be bet
ter first to abolish submarines. Great
Britain is proposing to France and
Italy a Mediterranean Locarno in which
Britain would guarantee each against
aggression by the other Italy seems
interested but France wants particu-
lars and fears it is a mere lure TO
persuade France to accept total naval
parity with Italy.
Franco-Italian negotiations, which
are so important to the success of the
conference and which were interrupted
by the French cabinet crisis, seem just
to have been resumed. Progress in
these has apparently been nil all along
the line.
Launch New Cruiser.
The Germans, who recently disturbed
the naval world by launching new and
better type of 10000-ton cruiser, have
now done it again with the Leipsif, a
new type of 6,000-ton cruiser armed
with nine 6-inch guns, four anti-ar-
craft guns, twelve torpedo tubes. using
both steam and oil together or separate
~, and having speed of 80 knots and
a cruising radius of 1000 to $4,000
miles. The German feet building or
planned consists of four big super-cruis-
ers and five of these smaller cruisers, su
that Germany may soon again be a
real naval factor.
frinn Erannln Mnn hQNn hRPf1 Gnnnia l.