Washington, Feb. 4.
Reporting on the Annual Naval Appropriation Bill, the Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives estimates—_ that nearly $500,000,000 will be required to complete the great naval building programme embarked on in 1936.
The House of Representatives has voted to make appropriations sufficient only for the maintenance of a regular army of 150,000 men.—U. Navy Radio through Reuter.
Anglo-Japanese Alliance in the Way.
New York, Feb. 4.
The Metropolitan Magazine," the leading New York monthly, foresees the failure of any attempt to bind America, England and Japan to a reduction of armaments. The three countries, it says, distrust each other, as all are reaching out for the world trade. America, it declares, does not desire to rule the seas, but she fears the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, "which was formed for the purpose of maintaining peace in India and the Far East, but might be aimed against America."
The trade fight is the real fight, continues the periodical. The oilfields in Mesopotamia, Mexico and elsewhere form a continual ground of dispute. Moreover, England has too much control of the cables, especially with her ally, Japan, at Yap, it asserts.
The magazine urges _President-Elect Harding to endeavour to secure the abrogation of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and the substitution of an "open door'' policy to which all can adhere, and to try to reach a_real Entente with England and Japan. "Unless this done, another and more awful war is practically inevitable,"—_ the article concludes.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.