Naval Disarmament a World-Wide Question, Says Rennie Smith, M. P.--Should Rely on Statesmen, Not on Experts

"The things to emphasize in the navel disarmament problem is that the conflict is not merely Anglo-American, as most people suppose, but that it concerns the entire world."

Explaining this remark, Rennie Smith, a British Labor member of Parliament and also Directing Secretary of the National Council for Prevention of War, said in an interview yesterday that Great Britain had already begun to disarm, and that it would not be directly concerned with America's way of handling the problem.

"What is much more important," Mr. Smith said, "is that if America carries through the present naval program China, will take up the cry, and once the ball has been started rolling, France and Italy will keep it rolling.

"In Britain, the party which will come into government at the next elections will be more inclined towards disarmament," Mr. Smith predicted. "But they should not trust naval experts to settle the question. The stupidest thing done at the Coolidge conference was the trust which was put in the naval experts. Quarrels on party; quarrels on guns, on cruisers,--why, what else is to be expected of naval experts anyway? The naval expert is paid to look after his navy. When he does not do that, he deserves the go-by. What does he know about limitation and reduction of armaments, or the organization of peace?

"He is an expert in armaments. As long as things are left to him, we can expect armaments and more armaments. Only statesmen, who know how to keep the naval experts in their places, who strike out body, with their eyes on a common policy, can give the world what it requires."