OCR Text |
Show Our Navy . Is Weak The danger of war between the United States, and Japan is not as, remote as most people think. The policies of the two countries :n the Orient are diametricaUy opposed op-posed and, sooner or later, one or :he other wiU have to give. way. When the clash comes it is easily possioie ior a war- to result, sucn a struggle, would be largely naval wai-f are. While the United States under various treaties is supposed to have a navy larger than that of Japan such is not the case because be-cause America has failed to build to the strength allowed while Japan Ja-pan has constructed and main-, tained a navy up to the limits granted her. Secretary of Navy Adams in his annual report, just made public, says that reduction of expenses has been made "principally at the expense of the lighting fleet." He points out that there is no adequate ade-quate building program' for our Navy and no provision has been made to replace obsolete vessels, nor the "rectifying of our already seriously impaired position relative to other signatories of the naval treaties nor for preventing further undermining of that position." To ouild our navy up to the treaty strength it would be necessary to build one hundred and thirty-five ships before the end of 1936. Discussing the naval status of the three leading naval countries Secretary Adams shows that Japan Ja-pan has a greater number of ships in commission than any other country. Furthermore, both Japan and Great Britain are building more ships than the United States. |