Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-05-02
NEWS REVIEW OF
CURRENT EVENTS
MIR. Stimson Returning With
Naval Treaty-Fight on
1t Due in Senate.
BY EDWARD W. PIckARD

ECRETARY OF STATE STIMSON
~ and his colleagues in the London
naval conference sailed for the United
States Wednesday bringing with them
certified copy of the naval treaty
which the senate will soon be asked
to accept or reject. The treaty was
signed on Tuesday by the represent
atives Of the five powers concerned,
the ceremony taking place at the final
plenary session of the conference in
the Queen Anne drawing room of st.
James palace. Prime Minister Mac
Donald, Mr.. Stimson, Aristide BRAND,
Retro Wakasuki and Admiral Sori-
ami all spoke at some length and
then affixed their signatures to the
m0mentous document. The confer
ence then was adjourned, with the
way left open for its resumption when
and if France and Italy can be
brought into the full treaty by diplo-
matte negotiations.
Though the results Of the three
months of work in London fell far
short of the hopes of those who spon-
sored the parley, they are by no means
small. The treaty, though signed by
all five powers, is in the main a three
power pact between the United States,
Great Britain and Japan by which
those nations agree to limit the ton
mage of all classes Of fighting ships.
America is to scrap three battleships,
England five, and Japan one. The
sections of the treaty adhered to by
France and Italy provide for a FIVE
year holiday in battleship building,
prescribe rules Of submarine warfare
and relate to less important phases of
disarmament. The compromise reached
between the French global and the
British and American categorical
methods of limiting tonnage was omit
ted from the document but will be
transmitted to the League Of Nations
for use by its preparatory committee
on disarmament.
That the treaty would not have an
easy time getting through the senate
was assured when the plans Of Sen
ator Hale of Maine, chairman of the
naval affairs committee, became
known. He is leading the opposition
and in his first attack on the pact
will charge that its ratification will
not give the United States parity in
naval ships with Great Britain dur
ing the life of the pact. He also will
attack the treaty on the ground that
its provisions allowing Japan an In
crease in cruiser, submarine, and de-
stroyer ratio will weaken the Ameri-
can naval position in the Far East
and lower this country's prestige in
the Orient.
1t was said Mr.. Hale found many
admirals of the navy were hostile to
the treaty mainly because of limita-
lions placed on American building of
S-inch gun cruisers and the increase
In the Japanese ratios. Senator Borah,
chairman of the foreign, relations COM
mittee, and Senators Reed of Penn
sylvania and Robinson of Arkansas,
are expected to lead the fight in be-
half of ratification of the pact.
D EBUTTAL evidence by the vets
AN was heard by the house judiciary
committee, the principal witnesses be-
ing Pierre S. du Pont, millionaire chem
ical and munitions manufacturer Maj.
Gen. Clarence II. Edwards, comman-
der of the Twenty-sixth division. A.
Z. f.; Miss Elizabeth Harris, repre-
senting the Women's Organization for
National Prohibition Reform, and DR..
Clarence f. Buck, secretary of the
Federal Dispensary-Tax Reduction
league. Mr.. du Pont presented argu-
ments and statements designed to re-
flute the claims of the drys that the
country's prosperity in recent years
has been due mainly or in any marked
degree to prohibition. General Ed
wards bitterly attacked the prohibit
tionists for putting through the Eight
zenith amendment while the soldiers
were overseas, told the bad results
of drying up the military reserva-
lions as a preliminary experiment and
gave facts and figures showing the
excellent behavior of the American