Evening star., 1936-05-17
BY WINSTON CHURCHILL
nneeia, Dispatch TO The Star.

epeciaI Dispatch TO The Star.
LONDON, May is (N.A.N.Ao.-Be-
wilderment not unmingled with dis
may has been caused by the an
nouncement of the government that
in order to comply with the treaty
of London, no fewer than five class
C cruisers are to be scrapped before
the end of this year, that one OF the
Hawkins class is to be demilitarized
at a cost of over f270,00o, and that
the other three are to be reduced
from 7.5-inch guns to 6-inch guns.
We have been told by the govern
xnent that the admiralty requires
minimum of 10 cruisers to protect our
food supply. We now have only 50,
and the first step taken to raise them
to 10 is to reduce them to A. or even
lower, during the period when the
Hawkins class ships are being reduced
to smaller guns.
While, on the one hand, the tax
payer will have to pay an immense
sum to construct new vessels, he Is to
watch these quite serviceable ships be-
ing destroyed or demilitarized. Thus
we are disarming and rearmlng at
the same time.
To this glaring irrational climax
have we been led by Ramsay Mac
Donald's 1881 treaty of London. One
would have thought, considering that
Japan has quit the treaty area and
that our relations with the United
States in naval matters are so good, it
would have been possible at the re-
cent naval conference to have invoked
the escalator clause by agreement
upon all sides. No such steps were
taken, and of course if the govern
ment persists in its view that no ex-
cessive cruiser building by other pow
ers has taken place, we must keep
our word.
Sees Injury to Navy.
What an object lesson this is of in
fury done to the royal navy and to
the taxpayer by the treaty Of Lon
don!
It is not the only treaty from which
we suffer. The Anglo-German naval
agreement of 1885 constituted con-
donation of German treaty-breaking
which, to foreign eyes, seemed largely
to stultify our insistence on the sane
tity of international agreements and
our main position upon the League OF
Nations.
BY it we authorized Germany to
build submarine feet equal to our
own. BY it we put it out of our power
to retain in material reserve old ships
without. at the same time. authoriz-
ing Germany to build one-third of
their tonnage in new. construction.
Germany is now building a power
full navy as fast as possible. It will
naturally take her several years to
build even one-third of our total ton
mage, After which We may be told
that the weather has changed, and
that the limitation to one-third no
longer is applicable. The Hitler
regime, therefore. gained at our ex-
pense considerable prestige, and Ger
man naval activities were not in the
slightest degree impeded.
1t is certain that Germany has de-
veloped to an unprecedented pitch the
process of constructing submarines in
components and assembling them with
extraordinary rapidity. During the
war, German submarines building
reached a point where new U-boat
was completed on the average every
five days. There is no reason why
similar speed of construction or even
greater speed should not manifest
itself on the rivers and in the arsenals
Of Germany in the near future.
Not to Complete Inquiry.
The admiralty is now resolved to
rebuild the battle fleet. The inquiry
now being instituted under the min
lister for the coordination of defense
is not even to be completed, as it
might have been in the few weeks be-
fore this important decision was
taken.
The capacity of Germany in armor,
great gun plants and gun mountings
Of the largest kind at the present
moment probably is greatly in excess
OF ours. No one can tell what use
Germany will make of it in the future.
The same kind of awkward surprises
may be met with in the rebuilding of
the German navy, and especially the
German U-boats. as have proved so
disconcerting in the case of their air
program.
1t will be rejoined that treaty or
no treaty, nothing can stop them do
Ing whatever they choose" We ought
then to have used every branch of
the naval clauses of the peace treaty
as another means of uniting together
for purposes of mutual defense those
nations which lie in fear of immense
Teutonic rearmament.
The latest of the naval agreements
has not yet been debated by Parlia-
ment, and we must await its exposi-
tion by the government. Certainly
however, 1t seems to impose disabili-
ties only upon those powers that are
OF which Is one Of the most important
ways our freedom of design, recovery
Of which is one ofthe most important
aims of British naval policy. In the
trammels of treaties, we have been
forced to build at great expense un-
suitable types of ships. not based on
any true conception of naval warfare
Both Britain and the United States
have large numbers of these 000O-ton
treaty cruisers, the bulk of which are
thoroughly bad specimens of naval
architecture.
Position Of "Outsiders."
Japan or Germany. lying outside
the new treaty and enjoying perfect
liberty, can easily call into being
types which will decisively surpasS
the best vessels In our existing cruiser
feet.
It is of the utmost consequence thai
the plainest assurances should be
given to Parliament that we can escape
from this position If. at any time,
such steps are taken by States not
parties to the new agreement. But
even so, it is very likely that a couple
Of years would elapse before any such
danger became apparent.
What a story of folly Is unfolded
In the efforts Of the United States