Throughout Lis term as a Cabinet minister, as during his years in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Mr. Swanson continued to advocate a strong naval establishment for the country. As Secretary of the Navy, one of his early pronouncements was in favour of building up the American fleet to treaty limits, thus maintaining the 5-5-3 ratio—as between the United States, "Great Britain and Japan.
In 1916 a year before the United States entered the War, Mr. Swanson sponsored a $500,000000 three-year building programme providing. for sixteen capital ships for the Navy.
"Work at: Disarmament Talks Those also were the ideas that Mr.
Swanson took with him when President Hoover sent him to Geneva as one of the American delegates to the General Disarmament Conference of 1932-33. There' he opposed German and: Italian plans, backed by Russian, Rumanian and-Dutch members of the conference, for "abolition of battleships; advocating instead the abandonment of submarines as a naval weapon. For, he declared underwater boats are "the assassins of the seas."
Tall, somewhat thin, with plentiful grayish-white hair and a long full moustache, righ forehead and wrinkles of age furrowing a weather-beaten face, Mr. Swanson enjoyed considerable personal popularity in the American capital. He was a ready speaker and had a large store of negro dialect and fishing stories.
He was married and had one stepson, Douglas HalL-Reuler I Japan Asks Understanding of New Order in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.