Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-08
BY CAPT. DUDLEY w. KNOX,
U. s. Navy, Retired.


U. s. Navy, Retired.
TINE termination of the Franco
italian naval building truce
without any agreement def
Il n1tely 1eopard1zeS the London
naval treaty. How soon the
treaty may become impaired will de-
pend upon how quickly the French I'M
dertake new construction on a scale
which, added to Italian building, may
undermine the "two-power standard"
of the British.
The long manifested determination
of the French to have relatively strong
naval auxiliary forces seems all the
more likely to lead to early energetic
building in view of the expected Ger
man claims at the forthcoming general
disarmament conference.
The building truce between France
and Italy was arranged during the Ses-
sions of the London Naval Conference
when it became apparent that those
two countries could not join in the
agreement as to auxiliary tonnage. The
French had insisted upon a quota ap-
proximating to 10 per cent Of British
auxiliary strength: The Italians were
| Indifferent IS to the level Of limitatio
so long as they were assigned parity
with France, which in principle the
! French opposed.
Unacceptable to British.
Regardless of the possibility of COM
| posing Franco-Italian differences it was
manifest that the scale of the French
demands was virtually certain to make
their two navies together substantially
/ superior to the British navy. This was
| opposed to the "two-power" policy OF
the British and therefore quite unac-
ceptable to them. The conference ac-
cordingly went ahead with an agree
ment among America, Britain and
Japan on a scale of limitation which
would preserve Britain's two-powel
standard in relation to existing Franco
italian strength.
A safeguarding or "escalator" clause
was inserted in the treaty making it
possible for England to match future
| Franco Italian construction in any
class of auxiliary ships. Such action
automatically would raise the CORE
| spending limits for America and Japan
It was hoped that the truce followed
up by independent negotiations be-
tween the French and Italians and en-
couraged by the informal friendly eff
forts OF the other powers would bring
about permanent limitation arrange
ment of such nature as to make 1t pos
sible for France and Italy finally to
| bCIO1IIS PAL L1co W IIl6 AOIlOOil LIcdIyi
or at least to make it unnecessary to
invoke the escalator clause.
The hope has proved to be vain, In
spite of the good offices of Ambassador
Hugh Gibson for the United States and
Robert Leslie Craigie for Great Britain
and Notwithstanding the influence of
| the sessions Of the Preliminary Com
mission on Disarmament held at &c.
neva under the auspices of the League
Of Nations.
| Tw0-POwer Standard.
The probability of Great Britain
availing herself of her rights under the
escalator clause to break through the
tonnage limits established at London
last Spring depends less upon the pres
ent situation than upon Frances inten-
tons. 1t is true that the joint Franco
Italian strength. in submarines is
already unpalats Sly large-116,000 tons
as compared with 5000 tons for Eng
land. It is also fact that the British
strength in destroyers is somewhat
below two-power standard, the pro-