Senator Poindexter, acting chairman
of the Naval Affairs Committee, for
mally admitted the hopelessness of at
tempting further consideration when
the Senate convened this morning, and
all pretense of trying to pass it was
abandoned.
He placed part of the blame for It
on the House for failure to provide
appropriations for an "adequate" navy,
and said the other cause for defeat
was the filibuster against it led by
Senator Borah.
The bill included nn authorization for
the President to call a conference of
the 1'nited States, Great Britain and
Japan to discuss a naval holiday. Sen
ator Borah's Opposition has centred
around the disarmament feature which
finally was agreed on. Senator Borah's
position has been in defiance of the
recommendations of the Navy General
Board and the Senate Naval Affairs
Committee. He' _jounced he would
renew in the next session the fight for
disarmament conferences and against
capita! iOiips.
"Not a dollar of this appropriation in
the bill could be used until next July,"
Senator Borah said, "so there has been
no Interference with the naval building
programme, and that can be dismissed
without tremors for the future. The
disarmament programme will be urged
at the opening of the next session. The
Senate has gone on record unanimously
in favor of It. That itself is of tremend
ous importance in its psychological and
moral effect."
Senator Poindexter will continue the
Tight for what he considers an adequate
navy. It was admitted to-day that had
the bill come to a vote in the Senate
there would have been a large majority
for it. The House, however, would
have refused to accept the increase of
$100.000,CO by the Senate, knowledge of
which was one of Senator Polndextcr's
inducements to abandon the bill.
