Chapter 522 Naval Armament Conference

1 It can be considered calm, the international situation is not so chaotic, and everything seems to be developing in a good direction. new

Arthur doesn't know whether these are temporary or permanent, but the following February will be relatively important for the development of the world situation.

Under the initiative of the British, a conference on limiting naval armaments was held in London. Participants included many countries in the World Alliance, and some invited countries outside the World Alliance also officially attended.

After all, the British Empire was still the world hegemon at this time. Basically no country would refuse the British invitation, except for some countries that had already broken their skin.

Of course, not every country can get an invitation from the British. This is a meeting about limiting the scale of naval armaments, and the participants are all countries with sufficient naval scales. After all, isn’t not having a navy the biggest limitation?

This also resulted in 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 conference reached nearly 20, those who really have the decision-making power are only a few major powers.

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

Because of this, as soon as the meeting started, everyone turned their attention to the British representative, waiting for the British representative to speak first.

"Everyone, for the sake of peace and stability around the world, it is necessary for us to hold a meeting to come up with a relatively reasonable measure to resolve disputes and even wars caused by military gaps between countries and regions." Britain Foreign Secretary Gray was the first to speak, with an attitude of "I am doing it for the good of you and the whole world" and said with a smile.

After Gray spoke, the French representative shook his head in disbelief and took a sip from the coffee next to him.

"Minister Gray is right. Throughout the history of the world, every war is a tragedy in human history, and we should 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 to be thankful for for all of us here, for the entire world and all mankind. "The British's die-hard brother, the Greek Foreign Minister, was the first to speak, saving Minister Gray's face.

"I wonder if Minister Gray has any plans that can prevent the occurrence of war in the entire world?" There are also some more pragmatic people, such as the Spanish Foreign Minister, who have raised their own questions. new

"It's very simple." Minister Gray 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 careerists to launch wars without restraint."

"It is precisely because of this that we need to balance the military strength of each region to ensure that any powerful country will be restricted by other countries, so that wars can be avoided as much as possible and governments that want to launch wars can Think carefully about the consequences of losing the war with the country."

Secretary Gray seems to be speaking righteously, but most countries do not have much trust in what Secretary Gray says.

Although this statement seems reasonable, the question is, if a reasonable military balance between regions can be truly established, doesn't this mean that the privileges between the great powers will be gone?

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

Let’s not talk about whether any country can restrict the UK. The question is, are the British willing to let other countries restrict themselves?

All kinds of problems put the proposal mentioned by Minister Gray into an endless loop. This proposal, which seemed very reasonable but completely hopeless in implementation, just like the French representative's chuckle, did seem a bit funny.

You must know that the real cause of military differences between regions is actually the overall national strength of each country.

Countries with more resources and funds are destined to invest more in military affairs than poor countries. This is something that no external force can change.

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

The country's comprehensive strength depends on the country's economy, industry, land area, mineral resources, manpower, etc., and it is impossible to completely offset it with the proposal mentioned by Minister Gray.

However, although the proposal made by Minister Gray is somewhat ridiculous, after all, he is the foreign minister of the most powerful country in the world, and no other country dares to directly stand up to disrupt it.

Even the French just chuckled secretly, which was 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 adjudicate the situation of each country to avoid war caused by the sudden increase in military strength." No one made trouble for Minister Gray. He was very satisfied, and at the same time, Minister Gray's ambition was greatly increased, and he took advantage of the situation to put forward demands for disarmament.

But the problem is that disarmament is obviously a proposal that some countries cannot accept, especially France, the British's current biggest opponent. new

France's only advantage over Britain is the size and strength of its army. When it comes to disarmament, it actually means limiting the size of the army.

After all, the British would definitely not be willing to judge the navy, and the disarmament of the army would not cause much loss to the British. After all, the combat effectiveness of the new recruits is not much different from that of the regular army.

"Minister Gray, can you tell me more about your disarmament plan?" As expected, the French representative couldn't sit still and stood up directly, asking with a sour expression.

If the disarmament proposal mentioned by Secretary Gray was only about the army, the French representative was not even sure whether he would throw up the table and leave in anger, because this would become an open and honest attack on France.

"Of course it is related to the army and navy. In order to ensure that all countries are at a fair level, it is proposed that all of us discuss a more complete disarmament method. This will not only reduce the probability of war, but also reduce the number of all countries. Isn't it a good thing that national expenditures are used for related people's livelihood?" Facing the French representative's question, Minister Gray did not show the slightest panic on his face, or even changed his expression, and answered seriously.

"Mr. Gray, how to determine the proportion of disarmament? You must know that the situations and geographical locations of the countries you represent are completely different, and the relevant national conditions are also completely different. You can't maintain the same proportion, right?" Representatives of island countries also stood. He stood up and asked his own question.

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

As an island country, the island country's army strength is far greater than its naval strength.

The island country's naval strength currently ranks fifth in the world, followed by the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Australasia.

Although the naval strength has surpassed that of Italy and Russia, the problem is that one of these two countries is originally at the bottom of the great powers, and the other is facing a serious civil war crisis. Compared with them, isn't it possible to laugh at a hundred steps?

"Instead of determining the proportion of disarmament, we are not sure of the proportion of armaments retained by each country. Except for the armaments that need to be retained, wouldn't all other disarmament be able to ensure the fairness of disarmament?" Minister Gray said with a smile.

As Minister Gray finished speaking, the whole place fell into a brief silence.

Obviously, what Secretary Gray said is basically impossible to realize, because it is impossible for all the countries here to accept the proposal to reduce their own arms ratio without any reason, and it is impossible to find a disarmament plan that satisfies all countries.

Seeing that there were not many people supporting his disarmament plan, Minister Gray was not in a hurry. Instead, he brought the topic to the real purpose of the meeting, which was the limit on the proportion of naval armaments.

"Then let's talk about the proposal to limit naval armaments first. In addition to the proportion of navies of each country determined based on industrial strength and comprehensive national strength that we have previously determined, I think it is necessary to add another one, and that is the tonnage limit for new warships." Minister Gray continued to speak.

"With the competition in 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 in various countries to less than 20,000 tons to reduce the impact of super-large warships on various countries. expenditure, as well as equipment advantages.”

Determining the specific scale and proportion of each country's naval armament based on comprehensive national strength and industrial level has been determined as early as the regular meetings of the World Alliance.

But the problem is that such a division is not necessarily fair to some countries. After all, countries with strong navies also have less strong industrial strength, such as island countries that have recently joined the conference.

The island country is actually very special. If we only look at its military strength, the island country is definitely a great power. 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. The industrial level and economic level 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 have allowed the island country's steel production to exceed 1 million tons at most. This figure is not even one-third of Australasia's steel production, which is enough to show the island country's industrial shortcomings.

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 its navy.

To be even more pessimistic, even Russia, which is suffering from constant civil war, does not necessarily have a lower industrial level than the island countries.

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 powerful the army of the island country is, as long as the navy is not comparable to other countries, the army can only wander around on its own land.

Island countries must pay attention to their navy. This is a necessary condition brought by geographical location and is also the fundamental basis for whether an island country is strong.

Therefore, even if they are unwilling to offend the British again, the representatives of the island countries must argue hard based on the basis for dividing the proportion and size of the navies of each country.

As the meeting progressed, someone finally interrupted and refuted the British. Representatives from various countries were also happy to comment on this, and they were all ready to eat the melon.

"Minister Gray, this plan is very unfair to the island countries. I ask that the size and military strength of each country's existing navy be taken into consideration, rather than just the country's comprehensive strength and industrial level." The representative of the island country quickly stood up and retorted, While bowing to the British representatives, he did not forget the etiquette.

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 the comprehensive national power and industrial strength will cause the islanders to suffer a big loss, the problem is that the industrial strength of the Americans at this time 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 at the bottom of the major powers.

"I'm afraid it's most unfair to refer to the current military strength of each country!" The representative of Australasia 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 you refer to the military strength of each country, I think it goes against the original intention of restricting the navy, and instead encourages countries that are not strong in industry and want to focus on developing their military."

"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 somewhat surprised and angry island country representatives as if they were watching a good show.

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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