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We' have always held that on the whole the American delegation in its unswerving insistence upon a formula was -rather more- to blame than Great Britain for the failure, but' the point made by Mr. Duff Cooper is of transcendent importance. The Cabinet took the line that since the greater part of the permitted tor. nage must be used by Great Britain for smaller vessels, America would in practice be free to build a marked preponderance of large cruisers. ThuS Great Britain would not be equal to the 'United States in real fighting strength, but inferior. In our opinion the Cabinet were wrong to allow the Conference to split on that rock. Everyone says that the United States is not a possible enemy, and everyone admits that she could outbuild us at any time if she wanted to do so. . Surely we ought to have adapted our thoughts about _parity to those facts. As it is, the United States has a pretext for 'building more large cruisers than in a normal state of mind she would wish to build. All this was made excellently clear shy Mr. Duff Cooper, but it did not diminish . the force of . his main argument that Sir Austen .Chamberlain .by his courageous realism had proved himself " the best friend that the League ever had."
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