The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-11
By PAUL BRAUN.


THE Naval Conference, the converting Of
which was hailed as such a great event by
the imperialists of all countries has collapsed.
The rats are already leaving the sinking ship,
The American Naval Secretary has used a
convenient attack of influenza as an excuse
for taking his departure. The French dele
CATION, headed by Tardieu and BRAND, has e.
turned to Paris. Only the danger of a Three
Power Agreement between England, America
and Japan could cause the French government
to order BRAND back to London. Put as this
possibility becomes less likely from day to
day, it may be safely assumed that the French
government will not even attend the funeral
of the Conference. MacDonald's desperate eff
forts to save the Conference will not meet
with any success.
The London and Paris newspapers have al
ready sung the dirge. The Sunday Times"
declares that the Conference is wrecked and
only miracle can save it. MacDonald's gov
eminent organ, the DAILY Herald" is still
striving to awaken hopes. After declaring
that NJ. Brands decision to return to Paris
has given rise to new fears that the Confer
ence may simply fade out, it states
"Mr. Macdonald is, however, determined
that this shall not happen, and he is equally
determined that the present deadlock shall
not be permitted to drag on Indefinitely.
IF within reasonable period it has
still proved impossible to find any basis for
Franco-Italian agreement, or if the chief
French delegates still insist on waiting in
Paris for some new Italian offer which is
not Forthcoming, he WILL as chairman of the
Conference summon a Plenary Session to
report progress or lack of progress. . e.
The French and Italians would then have the
two possibilities-of responding to the ap-
peal or of declaring themselves unable to
reach an agreement
''If the latter, then it may be taken that
there will be no Five-Power Agreement ut
Therefore if France and Italy fail even
under the stimulus of Plenary Session. to
agree, the Five-Power Conference must end.
Nor will there be any doubt whose is the
responsibility for its failure"
This attempt of the DAILY Herald" to fix
responsibility for possible failure of the con-
ference, is the sure sign of the end There
can be no doubt that the Naval Conference is
in its death throes. There remains nothing
more for it to do but to die "a beautiful death"
What were the tasks and purpose of the
conference, and why was it bound to fail?
The chief aim of the Five Powers who sent
their representatives to London was in view
of the inevitability and threatening nearness
of a new, world embracing imperialist conflict
to improve their own military and political
situation at the cost of their rivals Not dis
armament, but extension of ornaments, that
was the real content of the London negotiations
The securing OF naval supremacy, that was
and is the chief aim of American and English
naval policy. The American delegation came
to London with the task to make use of the
conference for ,1olitioo1
scale. The Kellogg Pact and the slogan of
freedom of the seas" were its chief weapons
World hegemony Of American imperialism was
however, the aim.
Therefore it only at the first moment
that the naval program which Stimson brought
to London could meet with apparent approval
by England. Behind the modest demand of
naval parity with England, the English naval
experts discovered only too soon the secret
dreams OF naval hegemony cherished by their
American rivals. For naval parity with Eng
land would, in view of the scattered nature of
the British colonial possessions and spheres of
influence and the peculiar naval strategical
situation of British imperialism, be immediate
~ converted into dangerous superiority of
America. The recognition of the principle of
freedom of the seas" demanded by America.
would IN the event of a war mean for England
pioChdue, tne cutting OF from Its sources of
raw material England in face of the Amer
lean pressure, declared itself ready to grant
certain concessions, which however, lost their
value, the more clearly the Anglo American
antagonlsms became apparent during the course
OF the negotiations. The proposal made by the
English government regarding the prolonga-
ton OF the life of the large ships of the line
and the future limitation of their maximum
tonnage-proposals which do not affect Eng
land at all, as it possesses the largest ships of
the line fleet in the world, but which directly
hit Americas building programmed with the
flat rejection by the American delegation. The
Anglo-American friendship is now showing
its true countenance.
The Anglo American antagonism was the
deadly germ which right from the beginning
doomed the London negotiations. 1t has now
sealed the fate of the conference
In the Anglo American conflict in London
there is reflected the general agyravation of
the imperialist antagonisms between the United
States and England, which is an immediate re-
suit of the approaching world crisis of capital
ism. The antagonisms in London are themselves
a. oest concentrated expression of the strug