TRAGIC DATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 184, 6 August 1927, Page 9

TRAGIC DATE.

| UNLUCKY THIRTEEN. | i

Trick Of Fate In Armament j Conference.

FAILS ON WAR ANNIVERSARY.!

By OiMo.-rrosd Association.—Opyrigh

LONDON"", August :>. By a trick of fate the Naval Conference at Geneva broke down with j its ehief aims unaccomplished on the | 13th anniversary of Britain's entrv [ into the Great War. " ! The news of the failure of the nego- j tiations was received at a special meet- ' ing of the Cabinet, which was adjourned without a statement being issued. The Foreign Secretary. Sir Austen Chamberlain left Downing Street yesterday for his Sussex home. The news was quietly received in London, where the failure of the conference had been regarded as inevitable for some days. Newspaper comment does not j altogether free America from the blame,; but stress is laid on the fact that there ; is no need for recrimination because a formula could not be contrived. The "Daily Chronicle" says the immediate cause of the failure was that the American delegation could not make the: smallest concession on any material ; point. They never budged and as their j plan ianored the special problem of j defending Britain's trade routes there, «as no chance of an agreement. The paper remarks that the Ameri- j cans know they can afford to build any j other navy out of the water. Accord-i ingly they want parity. Altogether it , was an unlucky meeting. The "Daily Express" «ays it is a relief that Britain again has a good,! f:ee navy. Britain had never taken I the American navy into consideration | when she was forming her navy' estimates and she had no intention of I so doing. |

OPINION IN AMERICA. ! NOT ENTIRELY FRUITLESS, i NEW YORK, August 5. j The "New York Times"' comments on i the breakdown of the Geneva uavali conference. It says an effect he agree- j meut is impossible so long as France : and Italy are not officially in conference with the other Powers. | "Both those nations must now be smiling broadly as they think of their 1 astuteness in declining Mr. Coolidge's invitation to this happy-go-lucky conference," says the paper. "It was badly : conceived, badly conducted and there was little diplomatic preparation for it. j "Although the conference adjourned. with empty hands it was a success, be- ; cause it did not break up in the midst j of doubled fists." \ The "New York Herald-Tribune" | says: "The difficulties at Geneva were so deep-seated that they are likely to endure. The conference never got started. "If we want parity with Britain we must depend on our own initiation and resources. The conference was successful because it emphasised the value of American self-independence." The "New York World"' saye-i "The truth abont the conference is that it was already deadlocked two months before- it ojtened, when the British Admiralty and the American Navy Department, in April, formulated their limitation plans and began to disagree ahou* them."