MANY COMPLICATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 7

MANY COMPLICATIONS.

British Plan of North Pacific Peace Machinery. CONFERENCE ENDS IN GLOOM. SAX FEAXCISCO, August 30. The conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Yosemite ended in a spirit of heavy gloom yesterday. The delegates seemingly had reached a dead end in regard to any effective formula to ensure peace in the Pacific area. The establishment o£ regional peace machinery for the Xorth Pacific under the auspices of the League of Nations was suggested by a British delegate on Friday. This belated proposal developed into a maze of' conflicting interests yesterday. On the one hand the Japanese delegates insisted that any new pact must recognise her status quo position on the Asiatic mainland. On the other hand the Chinese made as a condition of their approval the withdrawal of Japan from Xorth China and Manchuria. ( This discussion prompted General Sir Kenneth Wigram to threaten that if a naval race between Britain and Japan resulted it might be necessary to raise the present 5 —3 ratio over Japan to 2—l. Some optimistic points of view were forthcoming, notably from M. Sarraut, who stated that the Nine-Power Treaty could yet be made effective by adding sanctions. Mr. A. V. Alexander (Britain) appealed to America to drop her isolationism and to come into the world system of collective security as an aid to world peace.