17 MAY 1930, Page 2

Lard Carson, also speaking in the debate of May 8th,

hysterically described the Naval Treaty as a " surrender of British naval supremacy," and applied all the old arguments about safety. Apparently for Lord Carson the world has stood still since the War. Every risk which he described is undeniably a risk in some sense, but the real question is : What is the greatest risk of all ? For that risk, of course, whatever it is, must be avoided like the-plague. We take it that no risk is comparable with that involved in a policy of challenging the world to a naval competition, and making ourselves bankrupt in the process, with the prospect of an ultimate conflagra- tion in which our civilization would disappear. * * * *