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The London Treaty and American Naval Policy

By Captain D. W. Knox, U. S. Navy (Retired)
August 1931
Proceedings
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It is essential that we maintain the relative naval strength of the United States.—Charles Evans Hughes.

Not since the war has there been such widespread, continuous, and serious attention to naval matters in the United States, as during the twelve months which elapsed between the preliminary negotiations leading to the London Naval Treaty and the final ratification of the treaty by the Senate.

This period marked an active renewal of the pacifist movement through strongly intrenched societies and various organs of publicity toward curtailment of American armaments regardless of equity. Their general line of argument was that armaments are a prime cause of war, and that the United States should vigorously promote world peace by ensuring the success of limitation conferences, even to the extent of sacrificing American interests if necessary. This is a reflex of the idealism so strongly imbedded in the American fiber, which apparently had been whetted by the failure of the Geneva conference of 1927.

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photograph of an oil painting by Captain Charles Bittinger, USNR

Captain D. W. Knox, U. S. Navy (Retired)

Commodore Dudley W. Knox, U. S. Navy (Retired) (1877 – 1960) was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval War College. He had a distinguished career as a naval officer with service in the Spanish American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Great White Fleet, and World War I. But it was his abilities as a historian, librarian, and archivist that earned him respect and admiration amongst his peers and later generations.

Transferred to the Retired List of the Navy on 20 October 1921, Knox served as Officer in Charge, Office of Naval Records and Library, and as Curator for the Navy Department. The publication of his clarion call Our Vanishing History and Traditions in the Naval Institute Proceedings in January 1926 led to the establishment of the Naval Historical Foundation. He would serve as  secretary of the organization for decades and was its president at the time of his passing in 1960.

For a quarter of a century, his leadership inspired diligence, efficiency, and initiative while he guided, improved, and expanded the Navy’s archival and historical operations.  His publications include The Eclipse of American Sea Power (1922), A History of the United States Navy (1936), and multi-volume collections of documents on naval operations in The Quasi-War with France in 1798–1800, the first Barbary war and the second Barbary War.

More Stories From This Author View Biography

Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.)

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