Human Torpedo

James Ramsay MacDonald is never so happy as when burring out sonorous periods on the subject of his great specialty "the Peace of the Wor-r-rld." Last week the silver-haired Scot, fresh from his summer's rustication in Nova Scotia, was busily ensconced at No. 10 Downing St. with experts of the British Admiralty. They had hoped he would take things easy and let the Admiralty dictate to Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon what course the Empire shall steer at the 1935 Naval Conference. Instead the Prime Minister assumed full charge last week, letting it be known that he will chairman the British Delegation.

Sick and tired of conferences though the statesmen and peoples of most Great Powers are. there must be a Naval Conference next year because on Dec. 31, 1936 the London Naval Treaty fixing a ratio of 5-5-3 between the U. S., Britain and Japan will have run its full term. If the expiration of this treaty is not to provoke a disastrous naval building race by the Big Three, new pacts must be promptly drafted, signed and ratified.

Once again President Roosevelt has sent to London his grey and graceful little Ambassador-at-Large Norman Hezekiah Davis who landed in England from S. S. Manhattan last week with Admiral William Harrison Standley, the always crisp and often scathing Chief of U. S. Naval Operations. Same day there landed from

S. S. Berengaria that supercharged torpedo of Japanese diplomacy, Rear Admiral and Special Envoy Isoroku Yamamoto. It is no secret whatever in Tokyo that the Japanese Admiralty has spent most of the summer priming Admiral Yamamoto to blow up the London negotiations unless Japan gets every single thing she wants.

Japanese everlastingly complain that the hairy foreigners* seduce their diplomats by subtle arguments and barrages of press propaganda which beat daily upon the sensitive Japanese who are striving to do their best for Emperor and Fatherland.

Against such foreign deviltry Admiral Yamamoto has a system. He announced before he left Japan that on his way to England he would read no newspapers whatever. In London his beaming aides said last week that their honored chief, delighted with his system, intends to keep it up.

Certainly Admiral Yamamoto, when he received London correspondents, seemed in the pink of optimism. He exuded confidence that the U. S. and Britain will soon see the justice of Japan's three main and simple aspirations: 1) Scrapping of the ratio system to give Japan "equality." 2) Scrapping by the Great Powers of such "primarily offensive" weapons as aircraft carriers. 3) Retention in good standing of such "primarily defensive" weapons as submarines.

From the Japanese viewpoint, and Admiral Yamamoto had tightly closed his eyes and ears to any other, what could be fairer? Japan knows that the decisive weapon of the West against her would be the aircraft carrier, that her best defense against it would be the submarine. She too, would need aircraft carriers to fight the West and in renouncing them would be making a gesture of peace. Finally who says that Japan is not a Great Power worthy of "equality"?

President Roosevelt has been cogitating that question. As a result the U. S. Delegation is fitted out with an elaborate sop to be offered at the right moment to Japan, a positively devilish sop in the opinion of Japanese sea dogs who hoped and prayed last week that it will not water down their human torpedo into a damp squib.

As explained in Washington, the sop would be to set up in place of "naval ratios" something called "security equality."

The Big Three, under this scheme, would each have "100% security," this percentage being made up on the basis of geography and armaments. By reason of her geographical remoteness, Japan would be considered to start with some "30% security" and would make up the remaining "70% of security" in armaments. The U. S. and Britain, on the other hand, would be considered to start with a geographical security of zero. Thus the "100% security" of the U. S. and Britain would be all armaments.

This brand of "security equality" President Roosevelt is apparently willing to grant Japan. In actual negotiation enough complexities could perhaps be introduced to save Japan's face and conceal the essential nature of the offer: a ratio of 10-10-7. This would mean a distinct promotion for Japan from the present ratio of 10-10-6.

When correspondents asked Admiral Yamamoto whether Japan would demand straight ton-for-ton equality with the U. S. and Britain, he replied: "The relationship of the Japanese Navy to those of the two other powers concerned is no different from the relationship between the navies of Great Britain and the United States. Under the existing treaties, the American and British navies enjoy parity respecting all categories, but neither is satisfied. I believe that illustrates the fundamental weakness of a system of disarmament, or arms, based on ratios. Japan wants equality!"

Japan will obviously try to fish in the troubled waters of U. S.-British naval disagreement. Last week this disagreement remained exactly what it has been ever since the Coolidge Naval Conference at Geneva (TIME, Aug. 15, 1927 et ante). Inside the global tonnage in which the U. S. and Britain are amicably equal they are angrily desirous of building somewhat different kinds of ships. The U. S., poorly equipped with naval bases, needs war boats of comparatively large tonnage and consequent long cruising range. Britain, well equipped with bases from which to refuel her fleets, would like to build smaller war boats, thus enabling her to pack a greater number of fighting units inside her global tonnage. This the U. S. cannot permit, fearful of a British swarm of hornet ships. Britain in turn fears what the U. S. might achieve with a sudden thrust of mammoth ships in a great battle such as Jutland.

Last week the British Admiralty was urging Prime Minister MacDonald to demand a new agreement whereby Britain could have 70 cruisers, each somewhat smaller than those comprising the 50 to which she is limited by present treaties. Like Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, President Roosevelt was understood to stand firm last week on the basis of 35,000 tons as the proper size for each nation's capital ships, while Britain would like to cut this maximum to 25,000.

Ever the conciliatory, constructive statesman. Ambassador Davis called the London naval situation last week "difficult but far from hopeless.'' Though each of the Big Three had aired its views to the Press and made discreet private contacts they will not begin to negotiate officially until this week, will try to rough out a groundwork permitting France and Italy to join the London parleys by Christmas, with a view to calling the 1935 Naval Conference early next spring.

French taunts at Italy, to the effect that she is "too poor'' to build the two new 35,000 ton super-battleships which Premier Mussolini announced last May, were abruptly silenced last week when Il Duce caused steel for the frames of the two ships to be dumped at the yards ready for assembling. "Work will be begun on the twelfth anniversary of the March on Rome, Oct. 28," announced the Dictator's press office. "Naval chaplains will bless the work on both ships as the riveting begins."

*The common derogatory Japanese epithet Keto (literally "hairy Chinese") is used for all foreigners, hairy or otherwise.

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