A NEW NAVAL POLICY?

It is reported that a Liberal Member of the English Parliament will suggest to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin next week the plan of placing British naval bases at the disposal of American warships; a proposal which, if carried out, will deeply affect the present position of the United States at the Naval Conference. The American fleet, especially in the Pacific, has to contend with the important problem of few bases at great distances from one another; consequently, the United States' representatives at the Conference have insisted on battleships of 35,000 tons with sufficient fuel-carrying capacity for long cruises, owing to this lack of bases. Great Britain, with many bases dotting the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean from Gibraltar to Hongkong, has been content with smaller ships of less fuel capacity. The two policies have naturally clashed in the attempts toward mutual agreement on fleet strength.

That a point of such importance to our naval policy and our national appropriations should have received such scant attention in the American newspapers is therefore most surprising. For not only would such a plan bring about a tight rapprochement between Great Britain and the United States, especially in Far Eastern waters, with unpredictable reactions from Japan; but also the present national appropriations for building up the navy toward treaty strength would be vitally affected.