OPTIMISM RISES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 9

OPTIMISM RISES.

Procedure N of Informal Talks Supported. FRENCH PLAN CRITICISED. (British Official Wireless.) s , (Received 12.30 p.m.) f / RUGBY, January 31. '' ' Optimism on the course of the Naval Conference was definitely increased by the proceedings at yesterday's public session. For the time being the delegations have now returned to the method '• of private conversations with meetings of the committee appointed yestt^—< and frequent consultations between the five chief delegates. , As a result of these exchanges it is hoped that the plenary session, at which further progress can be publicly recorded, will become possible before long. • At luncheon the Prime Minister entertained the chief naval experts of all the delegations and their wives. It is clear -that no attempt is to be made to fix f. rigorous programme. ' The "Times" points out that where A great number of interlocking questions are to be discussed and the solution of each of them may be affected by that of the others, it may prove better to proceed along the informal lines adopted by the conference. When it becomes clear from the conversations between the delegations which particular difficulty had best be got out of the way first, then a concentrated attack can be made upon it, as is now being made upon the difference over the method of limitation. While this is going further, informal discussion will reveal the next most necessary step. •French Scheme Analysed. The "Manchester Guardian," discussing the French method, says it means that the total tonnage assigned to each Power would be fixed and the. tonnage allotted to each category fixed, but that each country would be at liberty to transfer the tonnage from one category to another. In principle this freedom is objectionable. It involves the possibility of a continual unsettlement of whatever balance of forces is arranged at the conference....... If it: is necessary, states this journal, to accept the "transactional" method at all in-order to. secure an agreement the transference of ' tonnage should be limited at every s possible point. Th« ' French proposals speak only of a fixed percentage and would allow transference in every category, but the percentage should be low and should be restricted to as few categories as possible, for, to the extent that the transactional method is accepted, the actual maximum in a particular category will be uncertain, variable and subject to new programme making. The French compromise proposals outlined'at to-day's- meeting of the first Committee of tiie Naval Conference were ' issued this evening in the of a memorandum. Apart from the limitations mentioned in the cable tlie memorandum states that, within the hmits of total tonnage and in the absence of ; more' strict conditions resulting from special conventions, each of the high contracting parties may alter the disxibuting, subject to two conditions—firstly, that tonnages, by class, shall in 310 case be the object of an increase or subtraction of the amount exceeding certain figures; secondly, that the amount of tonnage of one class, which is to be transferred to another class, shall be notified to the other parties at, least one year before the laying down of the ships for the construction of which transferred tonnage has been assigned. Each party shall notify within a month following the laying down of any vessel, the type and displacement of the vessels. This information shall be supplemented when the vessel is launched by the publication of the main characteristics of the armament of the . Vessel. The French Foreign Minister, M. Briand, left London to-day for Pans, where he will spend a few.days to attend to pressing State matters before return-in"'to-'resume bis work on the French delegation at the Naval Conference. Sightseeing Tour for Americans. Mr. Mac Donald has invited all the American delegates and their wives to lunch with him to-morrow at Chequers, his official country residence. Afterwards he will conduct his guests 011 a fightseem" tour through Buckinghamshire. Visits will be paid to Milton's cottage in Clialfont St. Giles', to Jordan s, with its Quaker associations, to lenn and to the Great Hampden churchyard, where John Hampden, the Cromwellian Parliamentarian is buried. The American delegates will be particularly interested in the tour, for these places are historically associated, with the Pilgrim Fathers.