NAVAL DISCORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 6

NAVAL DISCORD.

j It looks very much as if the rejoicings and congratulations over the naval agreement between France and Italy have been a little premature. Apparently the Powers did succeed in devising a "modus vivehdi" in regard to the classes and tonnage of warships to be built by them in the future. But the question of replacing the older vessels as they become obsolete was left to some extent in the background, and now that it has been raised, it threatens to destroy the compact altogether. The French delegates say that they defined their claims in this respect quite clearly at the outset; the Italians maintain that this is the first that they have heard of the matter; and both parties are apparently inclined to blame our Foreign Minister, Mr. A. Henderson, who presided over the discussions, for not having brought out this difficulty more clearly in the early stages of the negotiations. It is a most inopportune development, more particularly as it seems to indicate that one party or the other is not disinclined to quibble about details, and thus endanger the pact altogether. The geographical position of France and Italy as naval Powers makes the arrangement of such a compact a delicate and dangerous task, and the highly aggressive tone ..which Mussolini has so frequently adopted in regard to Italy's claims in the Mediterranean has certainly not helped to simplify the problem.