THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19887, 26 March 1930, Page 11

THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

"NOT A WRECK YET."

BRITISH SPOKESMAN'S DECLARATION.

(UNITED (1(199 ASSOCIATION—-BY JiSCTBIC TELEGEAPH—COPYAIOHT.)

LONDON. March 24

"We have not beRUU to salvage the ship, and cannot until it becomes a wreck. It lias not officially become a wreck. It is still making progress. There are two meetings on the bridge this morning." So declared the British spokesman, announcing that th© British delegation . had made a survey of the Naval Conference and was receiving a survev by ! the Americans. The process would . then be jbintly continued. . 1 The expefts are still meeting, trying and hoping to reach some sort of solution. The French delegation has returned. It has never eiven anv in- . dication that it considered the Conference finished. M Eriand will prob- , nblv be in London during the week, the whole of which is likelv to be oceu- j pieel by conversations. ! A tilenary session is unltkelv thts j week. It can only be held, first, it there is something to do towards success, or, second, if that tope is abandoned. Neither contingency is expeced ! to arise this week. Questioned regarding a three-Power ; pact, the fepokfefeman feaid if the French had gone a three-Power pact woi:/d have been brought appreciably but that had hot happened. It would hot be negotiated in the five-Power conference. The onlv thing was to wilit and see. FRENCH DELEGATES RETURN. NO CHANGE IN SITUATION. (BRITISH omttAt frlMfctSS.) RUGBY. March 24. The newspapers state that the delegations may sooa have to decide whether the time has not come to summon a plenary session to review tne whole position. Such a meeting enable Great Britain, as tha inviting Power, to mote its proposals for disarmament. for it is felt that the obiects of the Conference have been allowed to drift into the background. "Tho Times" says: "If the proposals forwarded to Japan and America ara acceptable a way would be open to the drawing up of a complete pact, ana even at the present stage it is tett, that it would be possible to prepare a pact between America and Japan and Groat Britain, which wouldl accelerate the scrapping of battleships agreed on at the Washington Conference : to discontinue the replacement of battleships during the next nv« years, and thus prolong the life °r existing ships; to define the number of cruisers carrying eight-inch guns, and cruisers carrying guns of smaller calibre ; to limit the tonnage of destroyers; to limit the sise of submarines to 2000 tons: and to regulate the use of the submarine in wartime. «Bv this means." "The Times'' adds, "a great deal of good could come from tho London Conference, even if a five-Power treatv is not found practicable." . . . . A meeting of the British and Umtea States delegations was held this mornin« when the difficulties confronting the Conference were further examined, and this evening the Prime Minister | (Mr Ramsay had a long conversation with the chief Italian delegate, iSignor Grnndi. at the House <> ' Commons. . , , llie general situation had undergone no appreciable change in the_ oourso of the day. The French Minister of Marine. M. Dumesnil, has returned to and the Colonial Minister. M. Pietri. is due to-morrow. The date of the return of M. Briand is not yet announced. but he is expected when his Parliamentary duties permit. The King has presented the members of all the delegations to the Conference with an autographed fjramopoone record of his speech at the opening of the Conference on. January 21stTCach record is contained m, a Royal blue leather case bearing the Royal coat-of-arms. ;