Evening star., 1934-01-28

AclnDeT Oh bre HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
from Georgia.
TOR number of years the
- United States has refrained
from building its Navy to the
i limits permitted by international
agreement in the hope that this
action might contribute to world peace.
The policy of disarmament by exam
pie" has proved to be a dismal failure.
Instead of assisting world peace. such
a policy is a menace to it. Undue
weakness of a rich nation invariably
invites aggression from its neighbors
and a war-breedng violation of its
rights.
The United States has believed
wholeheartedly in limitation of arm
aments and has contributed very
greatly to that objective. In order to
be effective, however, it is essential
that the various powers should main
tain about the same proportion OF the
maximum strength permitted. If, as
at present one nation is far short OF
the armament allowed to her while
another is built right up to the limit.
a dangerous situation mas been created
and the prospect of continuing peace
has been jeopardlzed.
Far Below Pact Limit.
The United States is far short of
the limits set by the Washington and
London treaties. Each of the Others
has carried out an orderly building
program and has progressed much
farther than We in attaining the
authorized strengLE
Two courses are open. The first Is
to induce the other nations to reduce
to our level; the second is for us to
build to the full treaty limits. Inas-
much as the first has been tried re-
peatedly with no success whatsoever,
only the second course remains.
If the United States Navy is main
tanned at treaty strength. it will pro-
vide one of the strongest possible guar
entees for peace.
At the end of the World War the
United States was about to become the
dominant naval power of the world.
When the Washington Conference as
sembled in the Fall of 1921 we pos
sessed a naval force. built and building
which was stronger than that of any
other power. This had been created in
accordance with our announced policy
to maintain a Navy second to none,
which policy came into being because
of the fact that during the World War
We were unable to maintain neutrality
and did not have the power to COM
pei it.
As an altruistic contribution to world
peace. we took the unprecedented course
of surrendering voluntarily the naval
supremacy which we then possessed. We
agreed to scrap some of the most pow
erful battleshipS and battle cruisers ever
designed. No other country made
contribution to the cause of disarma-
nent which can even be mentioned in
the same breath. In addition. in the
following years, we were slow to build
anything else. whereas each of the
other great navies was built up very
actively in the classes which had been
left unlimited. Within 10 years Great
Britain provided for 1874 new combatant
ships, Japan 130. France 166 and Italy
lis. BY contrast. the United States
provided for only 34 This eliminated
in the four years of the Hoover admin
istration, during which not one new
States Navy.
Nothing Left to Scrap.
At the Geneva Conference Of 1927
and at the London Conference of 1880
we were not in position to make a
Similar sacrifice again and none of the
others was willing to do so. Geneva
was a complete failure. and London
arranged for no scrapping except that
the disposal of small number of the
older battleships. which had been
agreed upon at Washington, was some
what expedited.
At the time of the conference the
belief throughout our country was that
the ratios of 5-5-3 having been fixed,
We would continue to maintain our
Navy substantially at the specified
level. Instead of maintaining parity
with Great Britain and a superiority
over each of the other powers we have
let our strength in the lighter cate
gories-i. e., in the light cruisers. de-
stroyers, and submarines-slip to fifth
place and a very poor fifth at that.
When President Roosevelt entered the
White House. our prospective short
age on the date that the treaty is to
expire. amounted to the staggering total
of 135 ships. To attempt to make up
this great deficiency in the short time
of less than four years then remain
Ing was beyond the realm of possibility.
national industrial recovery act author
tied the President to undertake the
construction of naval vessels and air
craft within the terms and limits of the
London treaty. Six weeks after this
act had been approved, and in ac-
cordance with its provisions, contracts
were awarded for the construction of
80 ships of 120600 tons. Besides these,
in accordance with previous authorize
ton acts, contracts were let for five
ships aggregating l7,400 tons. The 81