DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—May
I be allowed to tender through the medium of your columns my grateful appreciation of the masterly contribution towards the cause of international peace made by Mr. Gabriel Wells in your issue of March 24th ?
That the road to international peace is one that is very difficult to negotiate is a fact that is being slowly, but more and more clearly, borne in upon us ; and it cannot but be a distinct gain to have the difficulties set forth so lucidly and cogently by Mr. Wells, more especially as he writes as an American citizen. For even those who love his country and ours least will probably admit that the one condition most essential to the furtherance of world-peace is that between the United States and Great Britain, of all nations, misunderstanding and suspicion should be permanently eliminated.
It is this feeling in the minds of men that has made the failure of the recent Coolidge Conference so especially regret- able, and renders a renewal of the attempt so hazardous.
I cannot help feeling that Mr. Wells, as an American, could render an even greater service to the cause he has so manifestly at heart, by analysing the reasons for that failure and suggest- ing the means for their avoidance in future. In this latter connexion I would make so bold as to ask him if he agrees with me that the essential preliminary to such a Conference should have been, and must in future be, the frank and dis- passionate discussion between our respective representatives of whether war between the United States and Great Britain is under any circumstances conceivable or not. If it be deemed inconceivable, let it so be publicly stated.
The naval requirements of each nation can then be set forth and accepted without reserve or suspicion. If, on the other hand, war between us be deemed conceivable under circumstances however remotely possible, then for heaven's sake let those circumstances be fully investigated and deter- mined, and steps taken to eliminate them once and for all.
In such a preliminary discussion it would seem that the
services of naval experts might well be dispensed with.—I
Previous page
