PACIFIC POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1938, Page 7

PACIFIC POLICY

UNITED STATES NAVAL PLANS

Fleet Sixty Per Cent Stronger than Japan’s

STATEMENT TO SENATE COMMITTEE WASHINGTON, April 3. In a statement to the Senate Naval Committee, the State Department declared that the United States must maintain a fleet at least 60 per cent more powerful than Japan’s so long as the tense political situation in the Pacific and the Far East continues. “Irrespective of what may be the future disposition of the Philippines, it is believed to be in the interest of security for the United States to adhere to the principle of the 5 —5—3 ratio unless the Pacific political situation is so altered to permit agreement on another basis,” the statement says.

"The Government will welcome an agreement to reduce naval arms, but does not consider a world disarmament conference at present would be timely. Arms limitation must be relative by joint action of the principal naval Powers.

“America must be sufficiently realistic in appreciation of the international situation to wish to bolster her own security pending a reversal of policy by the principal armed Powers offering some hope that a further general effort at disarmament would not be illusory.” The statement attacked attempts by a House bloc to establish a naval frontier beyond which the fleet would not operate except in the event of war.

“The practical application of this principle to circumscribe the activity of the American navy behind an imaginary Chinese wall would expose American citizens to attack everywhere in the world outside the wall,” adds the statement.