SEA POWER

Evening Star, Issue 19781, 3 February 1928, Page 7

SEA POWER

AMERICAN NAVAL AMBITIONS ADMIRAL JONES’S TESTIMONY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, WASHINGTON, February 1. Rear-admiral Hilary Jones, before the House Naval Affairs Committee to-day, said that the failure of the Geneva Naval Conference was due to the refusal of the Washington Delegation to submit to a programme making the United States inferior on the high seas: .He •• said that Britain sought to limit the,United States to warships of low tonnage and small armament, and that the compromise proposals offered by Britain by “this camouflage always came back to the original British programme of light cruisers with 6in guns, which were of little use to America. He said ho saw no conference in the near future that would again be taking up naval limitation, and ho vigorously supported_ the 71-ship programme. He believed it would not be ethical to build airship carriers below 10,000 tons without the consent of Britain and Japan. (Received February 3, at 10 s.m.) Admiral Hilary Jones told the House Naval Committee that he hoped the 1931 disarmament conference would remove the necessity of carrying out the entire 800,000,000 dollar naval programme. He added that a reduction of the American navy could only be made by agreement among .the nations. Admiral Jones urged the protection of the sources of steel and rubber as an economic argument for a fleet as large as that of Britain. He said: “Wo have a right to equal opportunity to carry on trade with all parts of the world with whom and where we wish without being dictated to by any nation in the world.”