HOOVER'S HOPES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 222, 19 September 1929, Page 7

HOOVER'S HOPES.

NOT QUITE REALISED. But President Satisfied With Progress. INVITATIONS NOT YET SENT. I _____ (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Received 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, September 18. Although failing to realise the maximum of the hopes he entertained at the outset of the AngloAmerican negotiations, President Hoover is believed to be well satisfied with the progress made toward further limitation in naval armaments. If an agreement in principle, reached between the United States and Britain, were ratified by the other three major naval Powers through a limitation programme for them consonant with the An^lo-American "agreement, the belief here is that a much more substantial reduction would be possible at the expiration of . the Washington Treaty in , 3936. - j By that time the navies of the world would have become stabilised under such an "agreement as might be worked out at the, projected January conference, and ft would be possible to survey all categories of ships with a icw to fui - theAimitation in each. Administration officials claim that the Anglo-American agreement in principle woyld end competition which, of itself, will result in smaller cruiser fleet and great Savings to Britain and the United States. -This was learned authoritatively on Wednesday. It is also stated that there will be no joint invitations on behalf of Britain and the United States. Mr. H- L. Stimson, Secretary of State, said that the dispatches emanating from London that Mr. Mac Donald had already sent .invitations through the British Embassies at Tokyo, Paris and Pome were without authorisation and entirely inaccurate. Invitations from the British Governmentiwill go to the United States, Japan, France and Italy. All five Powers are expected to participate in the conference, which it is now proposed to hold in London. Considerable preparatory work must ba done before'the invitations are sent forward through the British Embassies. Maybe that action will be deferred until after Mr. Mac Donald has conferred with Mr. Hoover at Washington on points still in controversy between the United States and Britain on the cruiser question. , The invitations to the five-Power naval conference to be held late in Ja. uary will. be issued by the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, in the near / future,; !i>ut the exact time remains to he determined. .