The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-26
Officials Refuse Permits for Youth Day Parodes
On the.
World Front
The Navies Race to War
Talk VIII Not Decide
End of 9-POwer Treaty
By HARRY CANNES

LOR the third time since the
1 close of the last world
war, the leading imperialist
powers are preparing for a
naval conference. These gi-
gantic scrambles for naval
arms always take place at the
most critical periods of capitalist
world conflict, and are themselves
factors in intensifying these antag-
onisms.
The next naval conference is sup
posed to take place in 1885. Never
theless, for the past two years secret
maneuYers have gone on among the
leading bandit powers for war al
liances, for bargains over naval
strength.
Not moment has been lost by
either the United States, England,
or Japan in building their navies
to their highest capacity in prep
aration for war. Roosevelt has in
his hand the club of the Vinson
bill providing for more than 100
warships. The japanese have ire
mendous navy budget and a war
building program rapidly under way,
as have the British.
Naval bases are being built secret
ly and openly, within and without
existing treaties, in Singapore, Ma
Mia, Guam, the Aleutian islands; in
the zap Islands, the Kuriles, the
BONN Islands = anywhere that a
naval battle may decide which i'm
perialist power will dominate an
important colony.
pUT the race becomes so furious
- that it not only risks exploding
capitalism into a war but because
of the huge cost, because of the
tremendous vicious expansion re-
quired in naval arms races, it
threatens to undermine completely
the financial stability of each of the
powers even before they go to war.
Hence the conferences are called
to bargain, to browbeat, to bluff, to
maneuver each other into a less
advantageous position.
The 1885 naval conference may,
or may not take place. The naval
experts, instead of discussing the
relative values of the various war
ships may try to decide the matter
in a, more decisive way. Certainly,
all the capitalist newspapers admit
that the forthcoming naval confer
ence is fraught with greater danger
and bitterness than the historic 1922
Washington arms conference.
At the Washington arms confer
ence, the United States, which came
out of the last imperialist war with
a swollen navy as well as an apo
plectic bank account, with its chief
rival, Britain, weakened, was able
to rupture the British Japanese all
| lance and for the first time to de-
clare itself as theoretically on a par
with the naval strength of Britta-
MIA.
The 1922 conference gavesbirth
to the Nine-Power treaty, which
supposedly opened the door of China
to all imperialists equally to plumber
as best they could without any ex-
elusive rights. That was victory
for Wall Street. Now Britain and
Japan expect to reverse that victory,
and have their naval arms ready
to do it. Roosevelt has built the
U. S. Navy to a point where Ameri-
can capitalism is ready to plunge
the American workers into war to
guarantee the American imperialists
the right to rob China through an
open door.
ME HAVE an interesting Japanese
W view of the Nine Power treaty
which came out of the 1922 confer
ence. 1t comes from the secret
memorandum of Baron Tanaka,
which forecast the japanese war
plans in Manchuria and the rest Of
China Written in 1927, it has been
carried out to the letter, with the
exception of the war against the
Soviet Union, for which Japanese
imperialism is rapidly preparing:
Says the Baron:
"The Nine Power Agreement Is
exclusively the reflection of the
spirit of trade rivalry. England
and America wanted, by means of
their great wealth to smash our
influence in China. The proposal
for the limitation of ornaments
is merely a means of curtailing
our military power and depriving
us of the possibility of conquering
the huge territory of China. 80.
The proposal of Minseito to leave
the Nine Power Agreement in
force and pursue trading policy
towards Manchuria is nothing but
1 policy of suicide"
Actually, the Nine-Power treaty
has been wiped out. New war al
Hances are being made. All of the
imperialist powers are rushing to
war in order to decide the redivi-
sion of the colonies, markets,
spheres of plumber and the size of
Unelr naVlSS III OrQ6r 10 accomplish
these ends.
, The second postwar naval con-
:, ference in London took place in
| 1880, at the beginning of the world
economic crisis. The present one
| takes place in the period of a new
round of wars and revolutions.
: Conferences can decide nothing,
as even the treaties arrived at are
prearranged through secret maneu-
vers before the conferences are
called. The Geneva arms confer
ence cannot even be called, so sharp
have the rivalries and war dangers
become. All the open and secret
official conversations concerning the
1885 naval conference between the
, imperialist powers will serve only