The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-05-03
By WILLIAM RUST Oondon).


THE Naval Disarmament" Conference has
now been wound up after three months OF
snaring and bitter quarreling. All of the
organized lying of the labor politicians and
the millionaire press cannot disguise the fact
that the conference has ended in complete
fiasco and that war is nearer and ornaments
are bigger than when the conference begun.
Alexander and Macdonald are now making
desperate lying efforts to prove that the con-
ference is success and that money has Been
saved but the plain facts clearly show thai
the conference was colossal flaSco and That
more millions will now be poured out on
cruisers and submarines
Firstly, there is no Five Power Pact but
only a pact between Britain, America and
Japan based on increased ornaments. France,
which intends to increase its naval strength
by 10000 TONS has made no pledges. Italy,
which claims parity with France, is building
as rapidly as possible
And what of the boosted Three Power Pact?
This is largely an agreement on methods and
technicalities Insofar as the word agreement
can be used, it is an agreement to build large
naves.
America has secured parity in cruisers with
its rival, Great Britain. To realize this par
ity, America must now build $4,000 tons of
cruisers Immediately, i. e., build ten new large
cruisers, complete three now building and also
commence a number of 6-nch cruisers. Britain
secured fifty cruisers with total tonnage OF
$4,000 as against the present total of 500
tons.
Two extra cruisers are to be built for
which supplementary estimates will be intro
duced into the House of Commons. These to-
gether with the four now building, will cost
altogether e12,OO0000 The II 8-inch cruisers
already in existence and some of the twenty
6-inch cruisers will be replaced. No wonder
the darling of the city, Snowden, cannot
budget for increasing the social services as
promised.
Scrapping Old Boats.
Britain, America and Japan, will scrap
total of nine battleships. These are all old
boats nearing their age limit and were soon
to be handed over to the old iron man in any
case
But we are saving e5OOOO0O0 on battle
ships. declares Alexander the Cooperative
Lord of the Admiralty. Yes, these lying
humbugs are saving money they never spent
and were not in position to spend.
Conference or no conference, battleships
would not have been built on a large scale
firstly because of the huge cost of these float
ing fortresses and secondly because the build
ing of the famous German pocket battle
Ship the "Ersatz Preussen" and the develop
ment of aircraft and submarines and naval
technique in general have greatly weakened
the effectiveness of the old type of battle
ship. It is easy to make virtue out of neces-
sty.
But this in no way alters the fact that the
Powers are only scrapping the more obsolete
types and that Britain possesses the new bat
tleshp the "Rodney" $4,000 tons), and the
battle-cruiser, the "Hood" (41,200 tons). The
three Powers still retain 80 battleshipS be-
tween them
Britain's submarine tonnage will be increased
from $4,000 to 52,7OO. All the talk about
abolishing the submarine finally resolved it
self into an agreement that each of the five
Powers should have the right to build three
super-submarines with tonnage of $500 and
mounted with 6-inch guns. These monsters
are more like cruisers than submarines.
Britain has already set the pace in this
sphere with the "XI" which has a tonnage of
2,78O and carries four 5.2-inch guns.
Jingoistic Naval Program.
These are the facts regarding the jingostic
naval program of the "pacifist" labor govern
ment. These are the results of the Naval
Conference which Macdonald organized with
the promise that it would usher in the dawn
of new era for mankind. No wonder the
liars are working overtime trying to confuse
the workers and covering up the imperiallst
war plans
Let us take look at the political results
of this disarmament" Conference, so far
the relations between the imperialist powers
themselves and their attitude to the Soviet
Union are concerned.
Early this year Pertinax, the well-informed
correspondent of the echo de Paris" stated
that Snowden had opposed the Conference and