WORLD NAVIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 7

WORLD NAVIES.

JAPAN AND U.S.A. Request For 70 Per Cent Of American Tonnage. PARRIED BY MR. STIMSON. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 27. Mr. 11. L. Stimson, Secretary of State, has asked the French Embassy for a copy of the statement on the naval policy in which the Tardieu Government demanded that the London Conference be made secondary to the Leagiie of Nations' disarmament programme. Mr. Stimson refused to comment on the French statement as it appeared in the Press or on dispatches from Japan revealing that the United States and Britain had refused to accept Tokyo's proposal for a ten, ten, seven ratio in auxiliary vessels. Mr. Stimson said that he did not believe that the public discussion of those problems would be conducive to success in London. By inference, however, Mr. Stimson admitted that the United States had parried the Japanese request for 70 per cent of the American cruiser, destroyer and submarine tonnage. Such an action would be in line with the expectations that Japan's original proposal was not final. Conference for Negotiations. The chief business of Mr. Mac Donald's preliminary meeting with the na'v al delegates on January 20 will be the choice of a chairman, who will most likely bo a Britisher. The Australian Press Association is able to reveal that among America's minute preparations for the conference was an inquiry whether Australia, New Zealand and Canada," as naval Dominions, have separate votes or whether the British Commonwealth will vote as a unit. The British reply made it clear that the conference is 'not regarded as one at which matters are decided by vote, but it is one of negotiation in the hope of registering unanimous agreements. This official intimation, coupled with the knowledge of Franco-Italian disagreements, strengthens the impression in London that the most likely result of the conference is an Anglo-American agreement, something on the lines of Mr, Mac Donald's discussions with President Hoover. The Prime Minister, Mr. MacDcnald, siivs he will devote the entire mornings to work in connection with the Five Powers Naval Conference during his stay at Lossiemouth.