Irony

Under the pseudonym "Student of War," a well-known British publicist delicately prodded the U. S.

He was scoring the Admiralty for wanting more cruisers at a time when "there is less danger of our being involved in a serious naval war than at any time in the last 50 years."

"No naval war," he added, "is conceivable except with Japan, and that is America's concern rather than ours."

Continuing, he said: "The Admiralty are building against Japan; more fools they, seeing that our obvious policy, if and when the United States and Japan are at war, is to write leading articles in America's favor for the first two years of the war and to be too proud to fight until the third year, by which time we shall have had time to construct an overwhelming fleet of the most modern ships.

"Should the United States be at war with Japan, there is no doubt on which side we should ultimately be, but is it unreasonable in the meantime that our policy should be 100% British?"