San Francisco, Feb. 15.
Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn, until recently Commander of the U. S. Fleet, said here to-day that the armies and navies of all world Powers were twice as strong as necessary, but that in view of world-wide armament competition he felt America was required to increase her present naval and military strength.
"When other peoples start arming," he said, "you simply have got to meet them.... battleship for battleship. 1 do not think we have seen the end of naval limitation conferences Sooner or later the rapidly morea ing costs of armies and navies will become unsupportable and then we will return to limitation agreements,"
He said there was general confusion over the terms "offensive" and "defensive" weapons.
"A battleship is a battleship and a gun is a gun," Adminal Hepburn said, "no matter at which end you stand." United Press.
The debate was initiated on a motion by Lord Elibank, formerly President of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, who drew attention to the magnitude of British trade investments in China, which precluded the taking of a passive attitude towards ents in the Far East.
He did not wish, he said, to be provocative either towards Japan or China.
After commenting on Japan's problem of over-population and lack of raw materials, he declared that China's population problem was just as acute as Japan's, and it was not surprising that she resisted when the Japanese "forcibly deprived her of land and laid her land to waste."
He, however, sympathized with Japan on the question of Soviet Russia, which was trying to impress Communism un China. "Japan ca not look upon this without anxiety; Japanese ambitions, Lord Elibank continued, were directed towards Chinese trade in such a way as to squeeze out all other competition. He quoted as examples the position in Manchoukuo and the recent discriminatory import duties decided upon by the "Government" at Peiping.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.