OCR Text |
Show THE GERMAN FLEET. The supreme council of the pence conference at Paris has not yet determined deter-mined t he dUpoMtion to be made of the vt'.-els of war surrendered by the Gertiuuis following the sinin of the armistice. Dispatches from Vuris in-d:e:i:e, in-d:e:i:e, however, a general accej.tauce of the vi-nv that ii the vessels are to be diiued anions; the belligerents the smaller nations shall be veil tho larger number of the ships, if this ylah is followed, fol-lowed, neither Oreat Britain is or .France will have any addition of eouseq'-ieuee lo us navy, -while dayaa vritl receive re-ceive few, i f a ny, vest eis. the same policy beinir observed with reference tho I'uited Sia;c-. President Yihon i.s represented in wireless dispatch.-.- iivm the George Wi'shhi-ton. as opposed to the "British 'jro;osal to sink the L;rreu-.:ered German Ger-man fleet. The yre.-ddent is understood under-stood to have reserved any further disclosures of his own position until he has had opportunity to dUeuss the matter with his eil!e:mtes in the Pari-- .onf-roi:c' Hi opp.h; irhsii to the Rrit-Uh Rrit-Uh s'.iuj.ei iu.-i i ha r t he :ivw ud-.-red i'JjU0t be M'ut tu i ii j b j : ; v:.i of t he .v. j is not likely to be without due weight ; in the i'aris council deliberations, i It is not difficult to understand the r-aMjiis prompting the British pro-I pro-I pusal. If for freedom of the seas it ; were In read British control there would be small change in essence. If ' o.;e already has the greatest navy in ;thu world, such as Great Britain now possesses, to de-it roy the second or third greatest would be good policy. ! Naturally, Great Britain has no desire ! to have her sea supremacy impaired by any large additions to the ileeu I of any other nation, even though that 'nation is leagued with her in a world j a-t. The British proposal may therefore there-fore be defended, from a British viewpoint, view-point, and looked at from other angles it is not without justification. The prohibition of the use of undersea under-sea craft in future is another Britisii 1 proposal the reason for which is readily ! apparent. Having the greatest collection collec-tion of battleships and cruisers afloat, it -is good policy to liar forever what Germany has demonstrated to be the most effective weapon against a surface sur-face fleet. No sane Englishman whe i wanted to remain in public, life would venture to suggest any diminution of the British sea power. From their viewpoint it is absolutely essential to the safety of the national life. The ! proposal to sink tho German fleet ' rather than distribute it among the 'allied nations is based upon a reluctance, reluc-tance, to assent to any arrangement which iu any degree lessens the strength of the British sea defense. Those who are inclined to grow restive res-tive at the slow speed with which the I'aris conference is concluding its great task should reflect on the complexity com-plexity of the piroblcms to be disposed dis-posed of. The issues must be adjusted properly, to stand the test of future developments. |