The Hearst newspapers in America have published what is undoubtedly
the text of a letter distributed by the French Foreign Office to French Ambassadors abroad, and this letter contains textually a considerable part of the Franco-British Naval compromise. Nothing could well be more unhappy than the disclosure to the American people of the nature of the compromise together with comments by the French Foreign Office. For these comments give the compromise a kind of anti-American twist. The letter says that " the British attach capital importance only to the special limitation of large cruisers "—the very point which caused the breakdown of the Geneva Naval Conference. After referring to the British sanction of unlimited building of smaller cruisers by France the letter adds " doubtless this leaves a door open for a naval armaments race." The letter breaks off suddenly, and it is thought that the full text of the original very likely contained a reference to Great Britain's acceptance of the French desire to exclude reservists from any estimate of military power.
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