The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 25, 1927, Page 5

Tue New MAGAZINE Section of The DAILY WORKER SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1927 The Sparring Match at Geneva Ts three principal sea powers of the world: the United States, Great Britain and Japan are in session at Geneva, the seat of the League of Na- tions, with the avowed purpose of trying to arrive at a solution of the race for naval supremacy which is being feverishly contested by those three powers under various subterfuges, Looking on with a pair of cynical grins ‘on their sinister faces are France and Italy. It should be stated emphatically at the outset that no intelligent observer of current affairs will for a moment be fooled into the delusion that the pow- ers are in earnest about their professions of devo- tion to the cause of world peace or that the present conference has any other aim than an attempt on the part of each participating power to steal a march on the other. The present conference was called on the initia- tive of the United States government, the same gov- ernment that made the peace gesture at the Wash- ington conference in 1921. Between the lines of the pacific speeches made by the American delegates to the Geneva conference can be read a threat, which implies that unless the other powers accept the American program, the United States will build a navy second to none on the seas. : Since the Washington conference which estab- lished the 5-5-3 ratio for the United States, England and Japan, our naval aristocracy and the battle- ship and armament manufacturers have been yell- ing that the United States was fooled into scrapping more naval tonnage than Japan and England com- bined and entered into other agreements which ham- strung the U. S. naval program and reduced the standing of the navy te below that of Japan’s. This is the ery of the militarists and navalists of all countries, but it seems to be obvious that Great Britain, since 1921 has been building cruisers at a feverish rate even during the term of office of the alleged pacifist James Ramsay MacDonald. What happened at the Washington conference is, that in return for scrapping the Anglo-Japanese al- liance, the United States made certain concessions to Great Britain which left the empire in possession of naval supremacy for the time being. The re- striction on gun elevation was not observed by Eng- land and this infraction was winked at by the United States, knowing that there would be another conference and another deal when the time was more propitious. That time has arrived and the United States has less reason to fear Japan today than it had in 1921. The world importance of the United States has increased tremendously since the war. The power of Great. Britain has relatively decreased. Japan is holding a precarious toehold in the Orient with the long slumbering Chinese millions in political voleanic .eruption. The Washington conference placed a limit on the building of battleships and airplane carriers. The United States would now limit the tonnage of cruis- ers and all other auxiliary ships. In brief the program of the United States is the following: A proposed tonnage limitation on cruis- ers of: 250,000 to 300,000 tons for the United States; the same tonnage for the British empire and 150,000 to 180,000 for Japan. In the submarine class the United States’ tonnage would be from 60,000 to 90,000 tons, the same for the British empire and from 36,000 to 54,000 tons for Japan. Against this program the British propose to re- duce the maximum battleship tonnage from 35,000 to less than 30,000; main battleship guns from 16- inch to 13.5-inch, of aircraft carrier tonnage from 27,000 to 25,000; of cruiser tonnage from 10,000 to 7,500 and of cruiser guns from 8-inch to 6-inch. The Japanese proposed a “naval holiday” and non- restriction of the building of vessels of small ton- nage and aircraft carriers under 10,000 tons. Thus the “friends” of peace haggle for position. The aims of the British are clear. As one writer points out she aims at retaining her preponderant supremacy on the sea by discouraging the building of war vessels by other nations with a wide cruis- ing radius. This is the explanation of her proposal for a reduction of cruiser tonnage from 10,000 to 7,500. Owing to the string of naval bases which Britain has all over the globe her ships do not need the fuel capacity that is required by Am naval vessels, whose bases are fewer and farther ‘apart. Also the British suggestion that the calibre of guns permissible on cruisers should be reduced from 8 This Magazine Section Appears Every Saturday in The DAILY WORKER. to 6-inches, is due to the fact that merchant vessels are not built to carry guns of greater than 6-inch calibre. Should this proposition be accepted Britain’s 950,000 tons of merchant fleet with a speed of 17% knots or more would be able to thumb its nose at the world. Of course the American sea lords will not be taken in by the specious arguments put forward by Great Britain and Japan. It is a long time since Mark Twain sent his American innocents abroad. If anybody concludes that there is any virtue run- ming around looking for a chronicler in Geneva he is easily gulled. They are all alike and partners in culpability. : William Howard Gardner, writing in the New York Times of June 20, gives expression to the fol- lowing significant language in a peroration to a letter on the naval conference at Geneva: “England’s real task and ours is cach to play our full part in the maintenance of our civiliza- tion—and to help each other to do so. As we look out over the world from our great, mid- SUBWAYS - The subway crashes Through the thickened atmosphere, Beneath the surface of life To its prescribed aim— Delivering cargoes of slaves. Factories are filled With thousands of producers, And the underground monster Rolls smilingly back from whence it came. Its existence is justified, Its mission is fulfilled. pn EUGENE KREININ. ALEX BITTELMAN, Editor By T. J. O FLAHERTY oceanic base, we incline to prize England’s friendship perhaps more than that of any other country. But is not American friendship im- comparebly more valuable to the scattered Brit- ish world than English friendship is to our mighty concentration? And will not England’s apparent policy at Geneva militate against that maximum of American friendship and support she inevitably will need above all else before this century closes?” This is the veiled threat that is behind the pacific language of the United States government. The same hostility can be detected in the nolite diplo- matic verbiage of the Bfitish foreign office. The international pirates are preparing to deluge the world in blood again over a division of markets and spheres of influence. They cannot come to terms. If they could they would hop on the Soviet Union and attempt to strangle it. While the three great naval powers are confab- bing at Geneva word comes from Paris that the French government has decided to appropriate $35,- 000,000 for cruisers, submarines, destroyers and mine layers. The war left the United States sitting on top of the world. Our ruling class intends to stay there. The die-hard tories that now dominate the British government are following an intransigeant imperialist policy all over the world. They would regain the position of world domination that was snatched from them in the smoke of a common battle by the western empire. Despite a common language and other ties, all signs point to a bittes struggle for world supremacy between the two great imperialist powers unless the workingelass of both countries and of the world organize to prevent an- other world holocaust by taking government power out of the hands of the plunderers who now look upon the masses as cannon fodder, and follow the example of their Russian comrades in laying the foundation for a world federation of Soviet Re- publics, :