The Southampton correspondent of the Daily Telegraph sent to Wednesday's
paper an account of an interview he had with Mr. A. Britten, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs in the House of Representatives at Washington. Mr. Britten said :- " I think the French and British Governments have agreed not
only to the unlimited use of submarines of 600 tons and under, and the segregation of the French reservists from the regular army calculations, but also to an offensive agreement based upon hooking the American Government into another disastrous naval agreement _such as the Washington Conference turned out to be for us. Even if no further undesirable disclosures are made, I think the so-called compromise will do much towards destroying world confidence in present-day European statesmanship. America boasts of being a true friend to Britain and France, and there is no reason why they
should treat us other than as a true friend. A secret conspiracy to hurt or undermine American friendship will positively weaken British and French financial and political influence, not only in Europe, but throughdut the world, and the quicker the present-day statesmen of these countries realize this fact the better for all concerned."
These are bitter words, and we hope that every reader of our article will agree that they are quite unjustifiable.
Previous page
