Evening star., 1940-10-28
Navy Day Reflections


In his Navy Day message to Sec
retary Knox, President Roosevelt re-
called that there has been "a recur-
rent tendency throughout our his
tory to overlook the Navy and its
needs, particularly after war" 1t
was such a tendency after the first
World War, in fact, that led to the
first observance of Navy Day, on Oc-
tober 27, 1922. Earlier that year, at
the Washington Disarmament Con-
ference, the United States and other
great naval powers had agreed to
reduce their armaments drastically.
In a well-intentioned but Inflated
move toward world peace, the Ameri-
can Government, with the support
of public opinion, had doomed 767 $50
tons of fighting craft, including
thirty first-line battleships and bat
tie cruisers in service and seven
battleships and four battle cruisers
under construction. There was a
strong demand for further voluntary
reductions. This rising sentiment
for disarmament thoroughly alarmed
the strong Navy" advocates, many
of whom expressed their protests
through the Navy League and other
organizations which were opposed to
any weakening of national defenses.
The first Navy Day celebration
sought to re-emphasize and to pop
ularize the strong Navy" ideas Of
Theodore Roosevelt, and so did the
obServances which followed in the
twenties. But the cry for disarma-
ment persisted. There came the
1880 London Naval Conference, with
It's edict for further arms limitation.
Another reduction in naval tonnage
followed, costing the Navy more than
100000 tons of battleshipS and other
war craft.
This period of demilitarization in
the world was not to last, however.
AggresSor powers were to take ad-
vantage Of those who wished for
peace and who hoped to insure it by
laying down their arms. Close on
the heels of the London conference
a dictator began to rise in Germany.
Before long totalitarianism began to
dream of marching. Communistic
Russia, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy
and militariStic Japan were spend
ing billions on armies, navieS and
air forces. Most of the democracies
watched the arms race with interest,
but did little about it. Not until
Munich did these wishful- thinking,
peaceloving and rather easy-going
nations begin to wake up to the
growing threat of international an
archy on the horizon. Czecho-
Slovakia was betrayed, Poland fell,
Scandinavia became a battle-ground
and, finally, Holland, Belgium and
France were crushed by a ruthless
conqueror. The battle of Britain be-
gan. Climactically, Germany, Italy
and Japan aligned themselves for
further world domination, aiming
their threats directly at the Western
Hemisphere.
A tragic epoch lies just behind us
and ominous days lie ahead as Amer
lea concludes observance of a new
Navy Day. America disarmed in
good faith and our only regrets are
that the sacrifices were made in vain.
Public opinion today is far different
from that which prevailed in 1922,
for we are living in a different world.
Today we are united in the convic-
tion that to be safe we must be strong
so strong that avaricious aggres-
sors will not dare attack US. Our
Navy, despite the era of disarma-
ment, is formidable and fully capable
OF protecting us, with the help of
Britain's powerful fleet. We know
that so long as Britain holds out
against the Italian axis,
there is little or no danger to us in
the Atlantic and our fleet will be free
for use in the Pacific. And we know
that the longer China holds out
against Japan the less will be the
danger to us in the Pacific. Common
sense dictates, therefore, a policy of
giving every possible assistance to
Great Britain and to China in their
front line warfare against the po-
tential enemies of the Western Hem
iSphere. Not until 1914 or later, at
the present rate of construction, will
we have Navy capable of defending
us simultaneously in two oceans. We
could make no better Navy Day re-
solve than that we will rush more
warplanes and guns to the heroic
nations whose resistance to aggres-
sion is giving us precious time in
which to build the Navy needed for
total defense.