The Prime Minister has made it perfectly plain to General
Dawes that the British Government do not really mind what ships America builds, but that they feel that definite limitation is essential if the two countries are to make an impression upon the other Naval Powers. It will be seen that though Great Britain will have a larger tonnage than America in the cruiser class, America will have a superiority in cruisers of the greatest fighting strength. The situation may be summed up by saying that Great Britain has given way on a point on which the British experts refused to give way at Geneva in 1927, but that America has given way in consenting to a larger British tonnage for the whole cruiser class. In other words, America has at last formally recognized the peculiar British need of a sufficient number of cruisers (not necessarily of the largest size) to patrol all the trade routes of the Empire. The result is a triumph of reason on both sides, and the highest hopes may be founded on it. * * * *
