Chapter 522 Naval Armaments Meeting

The first month of 1920 was calm, the international situation was not so chaotic, and everything seemed to be moving in a good direction.

Arthur didn't know whether these were temporary or permanent, but the following February was still important for the development of the world situation.

Under the British's insistence, a meeting on limiting naval armaments was held in London. Participants included many countries of the World Alliance, and some invited countries that were not from the World Alliance also formally attended.

After all, the British Empire was still the world hegemon at this time. Except for some countries that had already torn their faces, basically no country would refuse the invitation of the British.

Of course, not every country could get an invitation from the British. This was a meeting on limiting the scale of naval armaments, and the participants were all countries with sufficient naval scale. After all, isn't the lack of a navy the biggest limitation?

This also led to a limited number of countries actually participating in the negotiations, led by several major powers, and also including some small countries in Europe and the United States, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, etc.

Although the number of countries participating in the meeting reached nearly 20, the ones who really had the decision-making power were only a few major powers.

Other countries cannot compete with the great powers in terms of navy, and naturally they are not stupid enough to engage in a naval arms race with them.

It is precisely because of this that at the beginning of the meeting, everyone turned their eyes to the British representatives, waiting for the British representatives to speak first.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for the peace and stability of the world, we need to hold a meeting to come up with a relatively reasonable measure to resolve the disputes and even wars caused by the military gap between countries and regions." British Foreign Secretary Grey spoke first, with a gesture of "I am for you and the whole world", and said with a smile.

After Grey spoke, the French representative shook his head without comment, took a sip of the coffee next to him.

"Minister Grey is right. Throughout world history, every war is a tragedy in human history, and we should also try our best to avoid it.

If there is really a measure that allows us to avoid war as much as possible, it will be a good thing for all of us here, for the whole world and all mankind." The British's iron brother, the Greek Foreign Minister, spoke first and saved Minister Grey's face.

"I wonder what plan Minister Grey has to prevent the occurrence of a world war?" Some more pragmatic people, such as the Spanish Foreign Minister, raised their own questions.

"It's very simple." Minister Grey said with a smile: "Looking at the wars that have occurred before, most of the reasons are due to the huge gap in military strength, which allows a country's government and ambitious people to start a war unscrupulously."

"It is precisely because of this that we need to balance the military strength of each region and ensure that any powerful country will be restricted by other countries. Only in this way can we avoid war as much as possible and make those governments and countries that want to start a war think about the consequences of war failure."

Minister Grey seems to be speaking righteously, but most countries do not have much trust in what Minister Grey said.

Although this passage seems to make sense, the problem is that if the military balance between regions can be reasonably constructed, doesn't it mean that the privileges between the great powers will be gone?

More importantly, who should restrict a country like the British Empire that has super hegemony at sea?

Let's not talk about whether there are countries that can restrict Britain. The question is, are the British willing to let other countries restrict themselves?

All these problems have put Minister Grey's proposal into a dead end. This proposal, which seems very reasonable but has no hope of being implemented, is indeed a little funny, just like the French representative's chuckle.

You know, the real reason for the military differences between regions is actually the strength of the comprehensive national strength of each country.

Countries with more resources and funds are destined to invest more in the military than those poor countries, which cannot be changed by any external force.

For example, the British Empire and Greece, no matter how hard Greece tries, its military strength will never pose a threat to the British Empire.

The comprehensive strength of a country depends on its economy, industry, land area, mineral resources, manpower, etc., which cannot be completely offset by Minister Grey's proposal.

However, although Minister Grey's proposal is a little ridiculous, after all, he is the foreign minister of the most powerful country in the world, and no other country dares to stand up and dismantle it directly.

Even the French only chuckled secretly, which is enough to show the strength and prestige of the British at this stage.

"Everyone, for the sake of world peace and a better life for mankind, I think it is necessary to unite and make decisions based on the situation of each country to avoid wars caused by the sudden increase in military strength." Minister Grey was very satisfied that no one was trying to sabotage him, and at the same time, his ambitions increased greatly, so he took the opportunity to propose a request for disarmament.

But the problem is that disarmament is obviously a proposal that some countries cannot accept, especially France, the current biggest rival of the British.

Compared with the United Kingdom, France's only advantage is the size and strength of its army. Disarmament is actually a restriction on the size of the army.

After all, the British would definitely not be willing to make a ruling on the navy, and the army's disarmament would not be a big loss for the British, after all, the combat effectiveness of the new recruits and the regular army is not much different.

"Minister Grey, can you tell me in detail about your disarmament plan?" As expected, the French representative could not sit still, and stood up directly, asking with a bad face.

If the disarmament proposal mentioned by Minister Grey was only about the army, the French representative was not even sure whether he would turn the table over and leave in anger, because this would become a blatant target of France.

"Of course it is about the army and the navy. In order to ensure that all countries are at a fair level, it is proposed that all of us discuss a more complete way of disarmament, which can not only reduce the probability of war, but also reduce the expenditure of all countries and use it for related people's livelihood. Isn't this a good thing?" Facing the question of the French representative, Minister Grey did not panic at all, and even did not change his face, and answered seriously.

"Mr. Grey, how can we determine the proportion of disarmament? You know, the situations and geographical locations of the countries you represent are completely different, and the relevant national conditions are also completely different. We can't maintain the same proportion, right?" The representative of the island country also stood up and raised his own question.

Compared with France, the current situation faced by the island country is more extreme.

As an island country, the army strength of the island country is far greater than the navy strength.

At present, the naval strength of the island country ranks fifth in the world, and there are four countries ahead of it: Britain, the United States, France, and Australasia.

Although the naval strength has surpassed Italy and Russia, the problem is that one of these two countries is the last among the great powers, and the other is facing a serious civil war crisis. Isn't it fifty steps and a hundred steps to compare with them?

"Instead of determining the proportion of disarmament, it is better to determine the proportion of arms retained by each country. Except for the arms that need to be retained, all others are abolished. Wouldn't it be able to ensure the fairness of disarmament?" Minister Grey said with a smile.

As Minister Grey's voice fell, the whole audience fell into a brief silence.

Obviously, what Minister Gray said is basically impossible to achieve, because all the countries present here are unlikely to accept the proposal to reduce their armament ratio for no reason, and it is impossible to find a disarmament plan that satisfies all countries.

Seeing that not many people support his disarmament plan, Minister Gray is not in a hurry, but leads the topic to the real purpose of the meeting, about the restriction of naval armament ratio.

"Then let's talk about the proposal to limit naval armament first. In addition to the naval ratio of each country determined by industrial strength and comprehensive national strength, I think it is necessary to add one more, that is, the tonnage limit of new warships." Minister Gray continued.

"With the competition of naval armaments, the tonnage of warships has exceeded 30,000 tons, which is very exaggerated and incredible. I think it is necessary to limit the tonnage of warships of each country to 20,000 tons to reduce the expenditure of super-large warships on each country and the equipment advantage."

The specific scale and proportion of naval armaments of each country according to comprehensive national strength and industrial level have been determined as early as the regular meeting of the World Alliance.

But the problem is that such a division may not be fair to some countries. After all, there are also countries with strong navies and weak industrial strength, such as the island country that has just joined the conference.

The island country is actually very special. If we only look at its military strength, it is definitely a powerful country. Its army and navy are very strong, not weaker than the previous Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But the problem is that due to the limitations of its own land area and mineral resources, the industrial development of the island country has been very slow, and its industrial and economic levels are relatively low, even far less than the current Australasia.

According to the data released by the island country two years ago, the steel production of the island country seems to have just exceeded 800,000 tons.

Two years of development has allowed the island country's steel production to exceed 1 million tons at most, which is even less than one-third of Australasia's steel production, which is enough to show the island country's industrial defects.

If we really refer to the development of industry, the island country is destined to have a large gap with other countries in terms of the proportion of naval size.

Even pessimistically speaking, even Russia, which is constantly in civil war, does not necessarily have a lower industrial level than the island country.

This also means that according to the British proposal, the island country has no hope of catching up with other powers in terms of navy. As an island country, its development potential has almost been cut off.

No matter how strong the army of an island country is, as long as the navy cannot compare with other countries, the army can only wander around on its own land.

Island countries must attach importance to the navy. This is a necessary condition brought about by the geographical location and the fundamental basis for whether an island country is strong.

Therefore, even if they do not want to offend the British again, the representatives of the island countries must argue for the basis for dividing the proportion and size of the navies of various countries.

At this point in the meeting, someone finally interrupted and refuted the British. The representatives of various countries were also happy to agree with this and were ready to eat melons.

"Minister Grey, this plan is very unfair to the island countries. I ask to consider the size and military strength of the existing navies of various countries, rather than just referring to the comprehensive strength and industrial level of the country." The representative of the island country stood up quickly, refuted, and bowed to the British representative, not forgetting etiquette at all.

Although the representatives of the island countries stood up and took a clear stand against Britain, the representatives of the United States, the islanders' allies, did not think so at this time.

Although referring to comprehensive national power and industrial strength will cause the islanders to suffer a big loss, the problem is that at this time, the industrial strength of the Americans is definitely the first in the world, and they have a natural advantage in the size division of the navy.

But if we go by what the islanders said and refer to the existing military strength of each country, the Americans' advantage will be handed over to others again.

After all, the current scale of the American military strength is actually not huge. Except for the world's second-largest navy, the size of the army is definitely the last among the major powers.

"I'm afraid it's most unfair to refer to the current military strength of each country!" The Australasian representative stood up and said with a smile: "In addition to the current military strength of each country's national defense needs, isn't it possible for them to be militaristic? Is it a factor? If we refer to the military strength of each country, I think it violates the original intention of restricting the navy, and instead encourages countries that are not strong in industry and want to focus on military development. "

"The idea of ​​militarism is terrible, because it cannot support the expenses required for a large army, but it is more likely to cause a war that should not happen." The Australasian representative continued: "We cannot advocate this kind of thinking, let alone Proposals to use military strength to determine the size and proportion of a navy should be avoided as much as possible.

If the representatives of the island countries are not willing to measure it by industry, then let’s measure it by economy! Whether it can support the expenditure required for military strength is also the basis for judging whether a country is stable and will not blindly launch wars abroad. "

The words of the Australasian representative are clearly aimed at the islanders.

Representatives from various countries also looked at the island country representatives who were a little surprised and angry.

However, before the islanders could answer, the French stood up and expressed their agreement: "The representative of Australasia said it right. Economic strength is the criterion for measuring whether a country can support its military strength."

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