Paris 1919 - Margaret Macmillan [117]
Britain was about to give way at the beginning of March when House told Lloyd George that the United States could not accept an increase in the British navy. The distribution of the German fleet had set off alarm bells in the mind of the excitable and Anglophobic American naval adviser. Admiral Benson pointed out that whether the distribution was done on the basis of contribution to the war effort or on that of losses, in either case Britain would come out with the greatest share. “In future her sole naval rival will be the United States, and every ship built or acquired by Great Britain can have in mind only the American fleet.” Britain, he was convinced, was determined to dominate the world’s seas and world trade. 33
Lloyd George tried to defuse the issue by suggesting another of his sleights of hand: the ships would be given out, but the United States and Britain would go ahead and sink theirs. Unwisely, perhaps, he made this dependent “upon the understanding that we should not in the future enter into a building competition against each other.” Otherwise the British navy would simply go ahead and keep its share of the German ships. Behind his proposal lay British concern over the continuing expansion of the American navy, which threatened to end Britain’s naval dominance. Daniels had brought a second major building program before Congress at the end of 1918. The public justifications were reassuring: that the program was really just a continuation of the one of 1916 or that it was intended only to support the League of Nations. In Paris, however, Benson was saying firmly that the United States should not stop until its navy equaled Britain’s. It was a fundamental of British policy that its navy must be larger than any other, ideally larger than any two other navies. But the British knew that they could not keep up financially in a naval race; moreover, they did not want to jeopardize their new relationship with the United States. 34
Daniels came over to Paris in person to try to defuse the tension. “President,” he told his diary, “hoped we would talk it over and reach some right understanding.” The talks went badly. “The supremacy of the British Navy,” Walter Long, the first lord of the Admiralty, told Benson and Daniels, “was an absolute necessity, not only for the very existence of the British Empire but even for the peace of the world.” Benson replied briskly that the United States was quite capable of taking a share in keeping the peace. He and his British counterpart, “Rosie” Wemyss, quarreled so angrily that Daniels feared they were about to come to blows. “The British Admiral thought his country ought to have the right to build the biggest navy in the world and we ought to agree to it. To Benson that would have been treason to his own country.” The British threatened to oppose the special amendment on the Monroe Doctrine in the covenant of the League. Lloyd George told Daniels over breakfast on April Fool’s Day that the League would be useless if the United States continued its building. “They had stopped work on their cruisers, & we ought to stop work if we really trusted the League Wilson wanted.”35
In the end, since neither side, admirals apart, really wanted a break, a truce was declared. The Americans promised to modify their building program (which they had to do in any case, because Congress was being difficult) and the British promised not to oppose the amendment or the League. Each side agreed it would continue to consult with the other. The new mood did not, however, produce an agreement on the German ships that remained at Scapa Flow. “We should like to see them sunk,” Wemyss told a subordinate, “but