Correspondence
The League of Nations Union and The Conservative Government
Sir,
The League of Nations Union, in spite of its good intentions, is in danger of becoming an ebarassment to the Conservative Party and an obstacle to permanent peace.
Living on the coast and having been employed during part of the war as chaplain to the coast defences, I am perhaps better able to realise the necessity of a strong Navy than those who live inland.
England depends for her food supplies on foreign trade. If every acre of land in Britain was cultivated to its full extent we would not grow enough wheat to keep us alive for six months.
Within about 20 miles from where I am writing - that is not much more than the distance from Ware to Royston, and certainly much less than the distance from Ware to Cambridge - lie at the bottom of the sea scores of British ships which were sun during the war while bringing supplies to England. In 1917, though the public did not know it, we were very nearly compelled to make peace at whatever terms we could get for fear of starvation. The only people who really know how many ships and what kind of ships are necessary to protect our food supplies are our admirals and naval officers.
I lived much with naval officers before the war (my next door neighbour was killed at the Battle of Jutland), and I can testify to their anxiety for the safety of the country. Being employed, too, on the Solent on the edge of the submarine "Warfare," I was able to realise what an enterprising enemy can do, though I must add that the Admiralty and our own seamen went one better. Several of our ships were sunk within 10 miles of this house, so close did the enemy come, and so skilful [sic] were they in laying mines.
The League of Nations Union facies that it knows more about the sea than the sailors. That is absurd. When the League of Nations Union attacks the Conservative Government it is, of course, weaking the Conservative Party. It is doing more than this, and worse, for by trying to prevent adequate protection being given to our food supplies, it is endangering the safety of the country.
The Americans grow their own food and apparently cannot understand the requirements of a nation which fetches its food from overseas. The Americans wish to have a strong fighting Navy. Well and good. We require a force of small ships (how many our admirals can only tell us) to protect the vessels that bring us our supplies. In addition we require a fighting force as strong as the strongest fighting fleet, otherwise that fleet is our master and can sweep our ships off the sea whenever it chooses and leave us to starve.
Your obedient servant,
C. Poyntz Sanderson
Emsworth, Hants.
Feb. 28th, 1928.