THREE-POWER TREATY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 154, 11 April 1930, Page 5

THREE-POWER TREATY

NAVAL STRENGTH. BRITAIN, JAPAN AND AMERICA. FR AN CO-IT A LTA N DIFFICULTY. (United Press Association—Copyright.) . (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) V LONDON, April 11). In the House of Commons this afternoon, the Prime Minister (Air J Ramsay stated: I am happy to announce, that this forenoon an agreement was jinally. reached between the United States, Japan and Great Britain, on the naval programme, including all of ships. J.lie teiins of agreement are npw being diaftod. They will follow very closely the figures announced last Scptenihei and October during the negotiations with the United States, and they show substantial reductions.

“A White Paper will he prepared,” continued Air AlacDonald, “li'om time to time since the opening of the Conference various points of disagreement, which have- held up progress toward disarmament, have been settled and these, it is hoped, will he brought together in one instrument that will be signed by the five Powers. The differences in the naval requirements of France and Italy have not so far been resolved. .At the meeting early this evening between the French, Italian, and United Kingdom delegations it was decided that as such substantial agreement had been, come to, it was both unnecessary and undesirable to keep the full body of delegates sitting in London for the settlement of difficulties which primarily concerned those three delegations, and so we shall propose, at the plenary session to be held earlv next week, that the agreement now come to shall he signed and the Conference adjourned, on the undertaking that France, Italy and Britain continue their efforts to reach an agreement in conjunction with . that between America, Japan and Britain. —British Official Wireless.

AGREEMENT ON MANY POINTS. QUESTION OF FIVE-POWER PACT (Received This Dav, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, April 10. Efforts to obtain a full Five-Power agreement ljave not been abandoned. On a number of technical matters the five Powers are in agreement, and. it is understood that the question whether these should he embodied in the treaty form to be signed by all Powers represented at the Conference was discussed in Conference quarters to-day. Newspapers state the broad outlines of the form such an agreement might take were considered to-day at the headquarters of the French delegation, when Air Stimson (United States), accompanied by his colleagues (Alessrs Dwight and Alorrow) met AI. Brinnd. The proposal, which is of course purely tentative., and is one of several which are under consideration unofficially, is said to comprise three parts, of which parts 1 and 2 might be signed by all five Powers, and part 3 by Britain, the United States and Japan. It is suggested that part 1 should preserve the agreement reached between the delegations on the subject of what is called a. “naval holiday” in capital ships and large aircraft carriers and the speeding-up of scrapping should embody a table which represents the agreed compromise between the category and global methods of limiting naval tonnage, and should apply a definition of exempt and special ships which lie outside these categories.

Part 2, it is stated, relates to methods for humanising submarine warfare, upon which agreement was reached in committee among the representatives of the five Powers this week. Within this framework it is suggested that a Three-Power agreement might ho embodied, and this would be dealt with in part 3 of the proposed draft. Efforts to secure a more far-rcaching agreement as the outcome of the Conference, however, continued throughout the clay and lasted until late this evening. Tlie French and United Kingdom delegations met lief ore noon. Shortly after noon Mr MacDonald and Mr Henderson were in conversation with the Italian Ambassador and' Signor Rossi. The British Empire delegation had a meeting later, and at 6.30 tonight M. Briand visited Mr MacDonald at his Downing Street residence to review once more the position of the Conference.

An official communique says: “The French, Italian and United Kingdom delegations mot at No. 10 Downing Street this evening. The present state of tlie negotiations was considered with a view to report to the heads of delegations on Friday morning.” The heads of delegations to-morrow-will proceed with the drafting of the treaty, which will emerge from the Conference as indicated above. This will probably comprise certain articles to bo signed by the three Powers only, leaving certain questions for later settlement.

What will probably be the final plenary meeting, apart from that for signing the treaty, will be held on Monday or Tuesday. AMERICAN VIEW OF TREATY. WILL STOP COMPETITION. (Received This Dav, 12.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 10. Alter discussing the general naval situation with President Hoover, Mr French (Idaho), chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations Naval Sub-Committee, predicted to-day that the naval treaty would stop naval construction competition among the nations. SETTLING THE FINAL POINTS. A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. (Received This Dav, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, April 10. “The situation is very active,” explained the British spokesman, in reference to the Naval Conference. Mr Stimson and Air MacDonald met and later the British, Americans, and Japanese conferred and polished off the last outstanding points in the way of a clear conclusion of a three-Power treaty. The spokesman said that European activities showed the hope of some sort of five-Power pact had not been abandoned.