Sea Dogs Leashed

Great Britain and the United States henceforth are not to compete in armament as political opponents, but to cooperate as friends in the reduction of it. --HERBERT HOOVER. When Calvin Coolidge quit the White House amid U. S. plaudits he left many a Briton sorely vexed and honestly uneasy lest the U. S. and the Empire might soon "compete in armament as political oppo-nents." Of course no one feared actual War. But the Coolidge Naval Limitation Conference had broken down (TIME, Aug. 15, 1927); and Congress had passed what the British press called a Big Navy bill (TIME, Feb. 20, 1928). Therefore last week millions of Britons of every party--Labor, Liberal, Conservative--breathed fervent relief as the armament-race demon was definitely scotched. The three chief scotchers were President Herbert Clark Hoover, Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald and Ambassador Charles Gates Dawes--an engineer, a Socialist and a lawyer. Engineer Hoover has called for the invention of a scientific "yardstick" to gauge the relative strengths of war boats and cut the world's navies proportionately. Socialist MacDonald told Parliament, last week, that he intends to cooperate along the Hoover line, even to the extent of journeying personally to negotiate in the White House next October. He added, sensationally, that in the meantime Britain would postpone construction on several war craft already laid down. Lawyer Dawes did his bit for naval disarmament last week by arranging that Socialist MacDonald's speech should be backed up within a few hours by a potent pronouncement from Engineer Hoover. The President promised the Prime Minister a warm welcome in October, then seconded the British gesture by announcing that the U. S. would postpone construction of three cruisers (see p. 12). Throughout Britain these quick-stepping developments met with such widespread enthusiasm that even the Conservative Daily Telegraph observed: "All parties must hope that Mr. MacDonald's optimism is justified and wish him well in his further negotiations." Key points in the MacDonald speech: Parity: The Prime Minister said that he and General Dawes "have agreed upon the principle of parity"--that is to say when the U. S. and British fleets have been scaled down they must be of equal strength. A similar agreement existed in theory between the Coolidge and Baldwin regimes, but it came to nothing in practice because the experts on both sides always deadlocked over details before they got so far as "parity." Doubtless with these deadlocks in mind, Mr. MacDonald went on to say last week: "We have determined that we shall not allow technical points to override great public issues involved in our being able to come to a settlement." Loyal Help: Over 15 million dollars was to have been spent on building the war boats postponed by Britain last week-- namely the cruisers Surrey and Northumberland, the submarine "mother ship" Maidstone, and two submarines. Thousands of workmen will have to be taken off these well-paying jobs. They are unionized, potent. Last week the Labor party's Ramsay MacDonald simply dared not throw too many shipyard constituents out of work. Therefore his speech contained this interesting passage: "I am glad to say that as a result of special arrangements suggested by the Admiralty it is hoped to secure absorption of a large amount of labor that would otherwise be discharged from the royal dockyards. . . . "We are indebted to the Board of Admiralty for the help they have rendered. . . . They have furnished us with loyal help toward achieving our objective with the least possible dislocation and hardship." Pained British taxpayers visioned millions of their money being spent vaguely on "naval repairs." Watching the Hoover-MacDonald naval parings, Japanese Naval Minister Takeshi Takerabe said: "We cannot fail to derive inspiration from such examples. . . ."