MORE CONVERSATIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 153, 10 April 1930, Page 5

MORE CONVERSATIONS

THE NAVAL CONFERENCE. AIRCRAFT CARRIERS QUESTION. AGREEMENT ON DEFINITION. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) 'LONDON, April 9. The conversations between the naval delegates arranged for to-day in the hope that the chances of a five-Power agreement might thereby be reviewed, were somewhat .impeded by the illness of Signor Grandi (Italy). Nevertheless, the Prime Minister (Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald) andl the Foreign Secretary (Mr Arthur HendersonJ had a long meeting with the Italian Ambassador (Signor Bordonaro) and Signor Rossi. In the course of the day and this evening the French and United Kingdom delegations also met. After the latter meeting, which was held in the Prime Minister's room at the House of Commons, a brief communique announced that the development of conversations of the last 24 hours had been examined, and that a further meeting would take place tomorrow.

It is understood that this meeting dealt mainly with statistics, as did also the conversation held earlier in the day between Mr A. V. Alexander and M. Dumesnil, the heads respectively of the British and French Admiralties.

Meanwhile progress was being made with the other spheres of the Conference's work. The British, American and Japanese experts, who have been examining the reservations of the Japanese Government to the proposals sent to Tokio as part of the potential Five-Power Pact, reached a general agreement on most points at a meet* ing to-day and will to-morrow deal with one or two matters still outstanding. A special sub-committee appointed by the First Committee to consider the question of aircraft carriers also met to-dav under the chairmanship of Mr* Alexander (First Lord of the. Admiralty). It was agreed: "That the generic term aircraft-carrier, for the purposes of the present agreement should comprehend: First, aircraft carriers of over 10,000 tons standard displacement as definpd in the treaty between the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan, limiting naval armament signed at Washington, on February 6, 1922; and, secondly, other surface vessels of war of a standard displacement not exceeding 10,000 tons, designed for the scientific and exclusive purposes of conveying aircraft and so constructed that aircraft can he launched therefrom and landed thereon. Such-vessels shall not carry guns with a calibre in excess of six inches." These vessels will go into the aircraft-carrier category, while all other vessel's built to carry aeroplanes or seaplanes are to be charged against the appropriate combatant category accordin£r to size and armaments.—British Official Wireless. PARTY LEADERS INFORMED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, April 9. Mr Ramsay MacDonald mot Mr Stanley Baldwin and Mr Lloyd George privately, and informed them of the progress of the Naval Conference.