26 APRIL 1930, Page 1

The great thing, howeyer, is the complete confidence between the

two countries which makes a slightly unreal, calculation as good_ as any other. Great Britain is allowed a slightly larger total tonnage fok cruisers in recognition of the immense amount of patrol work which she has to do, but this excess is counter-balanced by an American advantage in the number of cruisers of the largest type. The United States will have eighteen heavy cruisers to the fifteen of Great Britain. As for the rest of the Treaty, submarines of over 2,000 tons are pro- hibited, though each Power receives special permission to build three of 2,800 tons. It is much to be deplored that no headway was made with the proposal to abolish sub- marines and, frankly, we can attach no value to the acceptance of fresh rules for humanizing submarine war- fare. A nation in an extremity, as Gerniany showed in the War, cannot be held to the rules. The moral is that since war is itself a huge atrocity it cannot be guaranteed in its parts against atrocious elements.