ARMAMENTS LIMITATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 157, 4 July 1921, Page 5

ARMAMENTS LIMITATION.

MR. HARDING'S APPEAL.

SANCTIONED BY CONGRESS,

ONLY FOUR OPPONENTS.

(gy Cable.—rress Association.—Copyright.*

WASHINGTON, July 3. The President made an appeal to Congress for iui expression favourable to the limitation of armaments through international agreement. Mr. Harding staled: "I am vastly more concerned °for the favourable attitude of Congress than the form of the expression." The President wrote to the Republican Leader of the House of Representatives (Mr. Mondell), and his desire was v granted this afternoon, when Mr. W. E. Boralrs amendment to the Naval Appropriation Bill, to authorise the President to invite Britain and Japan to confer and enter into an agreement to reduce naval programiEos annually for five years to an extent to be agreed to was adopted by 330 votes to 4.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) LONGING FOR PEACE. LONDON, July 3. Mr. W. M. Hughes, in an article in the "Sunday Pictorial," points out that the world's expenditure for military and naval purposes in 1920 greatly exceeded £1,000,000.000. "The world, -while, longing for peace," he writes, "is actually spending more upon war and warlike preparations than in 1913. If disarmament is an unattainable ideal at present, the limitation of armaments and settlement of disputes by peaceable means are goals that we may surely attain. Mr. Lloyd George has said that Britain is ready to discuss limitation of armaments with" the United States and other great Powers. Mr. Harding's recent speeches hold out a hope that some arrangement may be arrived at.

"I cannot believe that other nations will lag behind if Britain and the United States show themselves resolved to translate words into action," concluded Mr. Hughes.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)