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The Naval Treaty In the House of Lords on Thursday, May 8th, Lord Bridgeman, criticising the Naval Treaty, protested that the Navy had been reduced below the limit of national security on the sole authority of the Government. He asked pointedly on whose word it had been decided that our minimum cruiser strength could safely be reduced from 70 to 50. Surely the answer is that the Sea Lords, who no doubt would not have accepted 50 cruisers as enough on any purely technical conception of safety, very properly gave the best technical form they could to the over-riding disarmament policy of the Government. This was made quite clear in January, when Mr. Alexander said :- " With such powerful support for peace we feel justified in looking forward to a period in which armed conflicts need not be expected. The Board of Admiralty, therefore, having regard to all the circum- stances of to-day, and especially the Pact of Paris, and improved world political relationships, are prepared to agree to fifty cruisers
as the minimum needs of the Empire up to the next date for con- ference and revision."
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