THE COOLIDGE CONFERENCE.
The emergence of Security out of a practical discussion of the technicalities of Disarmament was neither fortuitous nor factitious. Precisely the same phenomenon marked the Anglo-American effort at naval disarmament, no matter what view one may 'take of the Coolidge Conference of 1927. Once the Conference got down to the discussion of detail— the analysis of the different classes of ships, the ratio to be established with regard to each class, and the level (practically the number of capital ships) at which the ratio should be set up—a wholly new notion came to light, the notion of Requirements. The Admiralty " required " a fixed number of cruisers. Our Security demanded it. That this incidentally entailed an increase in our Navy of 35 per cent., or on another day (the novel doctrine was at least elastic) 12 per cent., was just an unlucky paradox. The demand for seventy cruisers was persisted in to the disruption of the Conference. What, then, does Security mean ?
Previous page
