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Show LooMttg at Washington ISOLATION IS ENDED I. S. FORCED TO ARM LIMITATION FAILS JAPAN STARTS RACE AGGRESSORS JOIN HANDS JAPAN OUTBLILDS L'. S. BATTLESHIP PARADE FORCE THE WORLD RULE SOUTH AMERICAN LURE L. S. STANDS ALONE lllujo S. Sims, Washington Cor-lespondent.) Cor-lespondent.) It may be some time before the vast majo.ity of Americans understand under-stand the full implication of the American rearmament proram. It marks the end of the policy of isolation, iso-lation, regardless of how the fact may be camouflaged and beclouded ty statements and explanations. One has only to review the position po-sition of tne United States in world affai.s since the end of the World War in 1918 to understand the Ue.T.endcus import of the special spec-ial defense program about to be undertaken by the Government. Many readers will recall the disarmament dis-armament conference in 1921-22, which set up a naval ratio between Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy in regard to battleships and aircraft carriers. The established ratios, five for the United States and Great Britain, three for Japan and two for France and Italy seemed a move to definitely defin-itely limit competition in naval rearmament. re-armament. The United States, at that time, demanded and Great Britain granted, grant-ed, full parity for the navies of the two English-speaking nations. This was a concession on the part of the British who had long followed follow-ed a naval policy of building ships to equal the fleet of any two powers. pow-ers. The United States also made certain vital concessions. ' We agreed not to fortify certain islands is-lands in the Pacific, including Guam, and not to strengthen military mili-tary establishments in the Philippines. Philip-pines. In addition, the United States, which was In the midst of a naval construction prCgTara, agreed to junk millions of dollars" worth of warships, including battleships bat-tleships in advance stages of construction. con-struction. As an offset to the concessions made by the United States and GXeat Britain, Japan and the other nations entered into certain obligations obli-gations in respect to the Pacific and the Far East. These included solemn undertakings to respect the territorial integrity of China" to maintain the "Open Door" in China, to respect the right of the Chinese people to develop without molestation and to take no advantage advan-tage of existing Teonrirtions in ' a troubled Chinese nation for selfish purpses. The limitation thus placed on capital ships had no application to cruisers, destroyers and submarines. submar-ines. Naturally, the nations turned to those categories that were unrestricted. un-restricted. Therefore in 1936 a conference was held In London, at which time, limits were established for these smaller vessels. The net result was that unarmed powers began to build up the treaty as limits while the United States, and to a lesser extent, Great Britain, begon to build up to the treaty as pacts to establish permanent ratios fcr the navies of the world and to :ender unnecessary a large naval prcgram. The . situation was rudely changed chang-ed by notice given by Japan, under un-der the terms of the treaty, that upon its expiration, Japan would not renew the agreement. The Japanese insisted upon parity for the Japanese Navy "in principle", holding out for the general idea that it was an affront to Japen to accept inferiority in naval tonnage and ihat if equality 'was granted, it did not mean that the Japanese fleet would be built to equal the fieets of either the United States cr Great Britain. Thereafter, upon the expiration of the Treaty, Great Britain, the United States and Japan were unable un-able to agree upen any limits on warships, although France joined the English-speaking nations in a pact, left open to other powers, and implemented with avenues of escape for the th'ee signatories in the event that naval construction by other powers made such a step necessary. It is interesting to point out that since 1922. Japan has built, or started building, 217 warships with a gross cf 717,00 tons, while the United States has built, or started, only 135 ships with a gross cf 560,-000 560,-000 tens. In ether words, during toe period of disarmament, when this country was attempting to limit naval rivalry. Japan was outbuilding out-building the United States, laving down approximately five trns of wa' ships for every fcur tons that the United States built. Between 1928 and 1933, naval oorstruction in this country was pvacticallv at a standstill, but I?pan s'eadily pushed her program along and proceeded to construct npv wa' ships. Consequently, today, recording to naval experts, Japan has nealy as much modern naval tonnage as the United States. The figures on "under age" ships shows that the Uni'ed States has 113 vessels, ves-sels, or 969,230 tons, and Japan has I 171 vessels, or 708.158 tons. In- j eluded in the tonnage are seven American snd two Japanese capi-1 tal ships which will become "over ate" by 1942. Present naval plans in Japan are unknown, although there are reports re-ports that the Japanese are building build-ing three 43,000-ton battleships, to be equipped with eighteen-inch guns. Tckyo officials deny the report re-port but little credence is placed in such denials. If the fact is established, it is a foregone contusion con-tusion that the United States and tleship plans in order to meet the Japanese prcgram. The holiday in battleship construction, con-struction, which began in 1922, is delinitely abandoned. Every major ma-jor power in the world is engaged in the const, uction of super -battleships, up to the 35,000-ton limit established by the naval pacts. According to reports, Great Britain has five under construction and plans five more. France is building build-ing two and plans others. Italy is building two and has two others contemplated. Germany is building build-ing two and planning another. Russian plans are uncertain but persistent reports tell of plans to import materials from other coun-ries coun-ries for the construction of battleships. battle-ships. "Apparently, within the next. four years, Italy, Germany and France will have eight or nine battleships each. Japan at least thirteen and possibly more, Great Britain a possible twenty-five and the United States whatever Congress finally elects to build, above the number necessary to replace those that are retired. Readers of this column can take it for granted that this naval construction con-struction is for the purpose of fighting. It has been instigated by the three aggressive, dictator-controlled nations, apparently bound together by treaties, the full import of which is unkown. Disatisfied with world conditions, Germany, Italy and Japan, have adopted as a national policy the use of military mili-tary and naval forces to achieve results. Germany has discarded the terms of the Versailles Treaty and at almost any time, can precipitate precipi-tate a crisis in Europe by advancing advanc-ing against Russia, or some of the smaller states to the south. Italy has seized Ethiopia and Japan is attempting to swallow China. Once these tasks are completed, it is reasonably certain that thsy- wHL turn their attention to other fields in an attempt to build up empires. The South American Continent, relatively undeveloped and possessing possess-ing vast natural resources, will excite ex-cite envious attention. Under present pres-ent conditions, it would be comparatively compar-atively easy for Germany, Italy or Japan to incite a revolutionary movement in any Latin-American country and,y,undej the guise of war and Communism, land an expedition expedi-tion to support a favored faction. Certainly, the three of them together togeth-er would piesent a formidable front. Here we come back to the American Am-erican policy of isolation. We have assumed the guardianship of the Western Hemisphere. We have advised the other nations of the world, that, by preference, we stand alone. Yet the fact today is that if Great Britain and France were willing to remain unconcerned, unconcern-ed, the three aggressive nations could probably come over and take any part of South America, that they wanted to without the United States being able to successfully prevent such a partition. Under such conditions and in the face of possible threats in the Atlantic, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, it is not surprising that the responsible officials of this government govern-ment have determined to arm the na'ion to defend its vital interests. In fact the only choice that Washington Wash-ington has today In the light of current aggression is to choose between be-tween an alliance with Great Britain Brit-ain and France or else build a navy large enough to defend this hemisphere hemi-sphere frcm attack by any combination combin-ation which might include Ger-mar.l, Ger-mar.l, Italy and Japan. With an intention of eliminating all but machinery Imports, the Mexican Government recently doubled dou-bled and quadrupled its customs duties. The increases are directed against the lower tariff program of Secretary Hull and chiefly affects the United States, which has been selling Mexico about seventy per :ent cf what she buys. Officials point out that smaller increases in tariffs have been made against certain cer-tain German products. When Ambassador Josephus Daniels Dan-iels expressed his "g eat surprise and reoret" at the increases he -.as advised by the Mexican Secretary Secre-tary cf Finance that they wer6 temporary and "it was hoped" to l'wer them as soon as posible. The United States recently concluded a silver purchase agreement with Mexico and relations between the two countries have been on the happiest and friendliest level they have ever reached. Whether a tariff tar-iff war will develop is doubtful. |