Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-03
.STIMSON FRAMING
DEFINITE PROPOSAL
U. S. Takes Initiative at
London With "Brass
TackS" Program.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
By Gable to The Star.
LONDON, February 3-Events at the
f1ve-power naval conference, The Stars
correspondent is in position to an
nounce, are scheduled to proceed rap
idly from this week onward.
Progress is likely to be such that adj
journment by March / will become a
strong possibility. The American dele
cation, primarily, will be responsible for
setting the new pace. 1t will represent
the United States ardent desire to cut
the corners of technicalities with a
minimum of further delay and get the
conference down to its major business
To that END, before many days have
passed, Secretary Stimson and his col
leagues plan to submit definite prop
osition for the limitation or reduction
of armament. It is not expected to
pave the way for immediate agreement
on all points, however, but the plan will
at least be so simple and so categorical
in character as to enable prompt, un-
equivocal expression of the respective
attitudes of Great Britain, France, Italy
and Japan.
Is Brass Tacks" Proposition.
Broadly speaking, the American pro-
gram is the kind known in the United
States as "braSS tackS" proposition
one which will require the conference
to fish or cut bait
Present a.. angements call for these
developments practically as soon as to-
rorrow's plenary session disposes of
the complicated "transectional'' scheme
for transferring certain percentable OF
tonnage from one category to another
This is a many-angled problem, but So
luton is believed to be in sight.
Details of Americas Tets go" plan
are carefully guarded, but its general
purport can be summarized in four car
dinal points:
l. Category limitation by five-power
treaty Of all classes of ships not en-
braced In the treaty of Washington,
namely, cruisers, submarines and de-
stroyers.
2. Abolition of the submarine. If abo-
lition proves unacceptable, the Ameri-
can delegation will seek to restrict the
number of submarines and prevent their
future employment for attack on mer-
chant vessels.
3. If there is limitation of cruisers,
submarines and deStroyers, the life OF
battleships shall be prolonged five years,
GI1uS pOSCpOQlIB commencement OF re-
placement under the Washington treaty
until 1885. This comprehends a saving
of between $500 ,000, 900 and S400, 000, 900
on American battleship construction be-
tween 1881 and 1886 and correspond
ing saving by Great Britain and Japan
Ask Equality With Britain.
4. Any or all limitations or reductions
proposed by America are dependent on
unqualified equality between the Ameri-
can and British navies in equivalent
| feet strength, If not in the actual num-
| Der of category units.
| A conspicuous feature of the Ameri-
can proposition is the absence of any
proposal for stated ratios, such as the
| 5--5-3 basis, wherein the treaty of
1 Washington rests Instead of fixing the
strength of the rospective navies &C
cording to a mathematical schedule the
Americans favor fixation of strength by
category tonnages. This on its face will
| indicate the various proportions of naval
strength assigned to each feet, but it
automatically will do away with the in
vidior system of labelling this or that
fleet as a class A or class B or class c
navy.
Both France and Italy have chafed
under the stigma Of being advertised
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