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Show naval strongholds in various parts of the world. Because of these great naval bases the British fleet in time of trouble could easily steam into a home port thousands of miles away from the British Isles and get every protection and replenishment that could be secured at home. Because of this fact Great Britain does not need the larger battleships with a greater' cruising radius. But the United States has a different dif-ferent naval outlook. We have no great naval bases scattered over the world. When our fleet goes out it must have provisions to last for a long time, in other words, must have a great cruising radius. For this reason rea-son heavily armored battleships of 35,000 tons or more are necessary for a first class American navy. Therefore, if Great Britain and France can push through an agreement agree-ment cutting down the size of battleships battle-ships until they become little more than "vest pocket" editions, they will have your Uncle Samuel at a great disadvantage. Of course a lot of noise will be made as to how cutting the size of battleships is in the "interest of peace and economy," but this will be just another consignment of apple sauce. The real motive will be that of trying to put something over on the United States navy. Such a procedure will come in poor taste when we recall the fact that back in 1921 the United States had a distinct advantage. If we had carried out our battleship building program we would long ere this have outstripped out-stripped all the other navies of the world. But we gave up this chance, this "edge" over the rest of the world in what we thought was the interests inter-ests of peace and disarmament. Evidently our move was misinterpreted. misinter-preted. No sooner had we voluntarily relinquished our battleship superiority superior-ity and accepted equality, than other nations began to speed up their construction con-struction of cruisers. Now it becomes apparent that another effort is to be made next year to put us at a disadvantage. dis-advantage. But Uncle Sam needs real battleships to protect his people and his commerce. i SIZE OF BATTLESHIPS. Despite the fact that it was Uncle Sam who made naval limitation possible pos-sible by taking the first step toward cutting down the number of battleships battle-ships a decade ago, and who made the recent London conference possible by making considerable concessions in the matter of cruisers, there is evidence evi-dence that moves will be made by some of the European powers at the 1932 disarmament conference to be held at Geneva, for the purpose of placing Uncle Sam at a further disadvantage dis-advantage by attempting to put through an agreement to place a limitation below 35,000 tons on the size of battleships. Naval experts at Washington contend con-tend that a reduction in battleship tonnage and armament would be detrimental to the interests of the United States and would give us a navy inferior to that of the leading powers of Europe. The reason is not hard to find. Great Britain has many |