FAILURE PREDICTED

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 129, 25 February 1930, Page 11

FAILURE PREDICTED

DESPAIRING VIEW OF NAVAL CONFERENCE MAY CLOSE DOWN UNTIL 1935 “INSUFFICIENT PREPARATION AND TOO MANY FINE PHRASES’’ United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. (Rec. February 24, 7 p.m.) London, February 24. The “Daily Express,” which throughout has taken a somewhat despairing view of the outcome of the naval discussions, to-day features a story from its conference representative headed “Naval Conference Collapse,” in which it declares the conference is closing down until 1935. The correspondent adds that the statement will probably be denied by the British spokesman, but nevertheless it is a fact. The conference, he concludes, has failed for the same reason that the Geneva Conference failed in 1927—insufficient preparation and too many fine phrases. ' WHY THE GENEVA CONFERENCE ’ FAILED BRITISH AND AMERICAN INTERPRETATIONS OF PARITY The naval conference held at Geneva in 1927 was between representatives of Great Britain, Japan and the United States. The conference failed to reach an agreement regarding limitation of naval strengths and closed with the recommendation that the conference fixed for 1931 to consider the revision of the Washington treaty should be commenced at an earlier date. 1 The actual position at the conclusion of the conference was summed up in a public speech by Mr. Winston Churchill, on August 6, 1927. Mr. Churchill said:— “The fundamental cause that prevented agreement lay in the different views taken of what constitutes naval equality by the Americans and ourselves. We are in favour, as a broad guiding principle, of naval equality between the two great English-speaking nations, but the Americans hold that equality or, as they call it, parity, must be measured by equal tonnage and should be expressed in exact mathematical parity. We hold, on the contrary, that the. principle of naval equality must be based not on mere numbers or tonnage, but most take into consideration the quite different conditions of the two communities. We feel bur island Empire is dependent for its inherent and integral existence, and, indeed, for its daily bread, upon our power to keep open the paths across the ocean. ... We contend that our position is entirely different from that of a vast self-contained community dwelling in a continent and free from European occupations. Therefore, we are not able now ... to embody . . . any words that would bind us to the principle of mathematical parity in naval strength.”

WAITING FOR THE FRENCH DELEGATION PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF SUBMARINE QUESTION British Official Wireless. Rugby, February 22. Until the arrival of the French delegates the Naval Conference stands adjourned. The only progress that has been possible in the interval is a preliminary survey of certain aspects of the submarine question, which have been referred to legal experts. ■ Speeches made at the plenary session indicated a strong desire on the part of all the delegations to do what was possible to humanise the use of submarines. No question of limitation of size of vessels is before these experts, who had a further informal meeting yesterday when the Root Convention, signed at Washington in 1922, which, owing to non-ratifleation by France, never came into operation, was taken as the starting point for their review. The Convention declared that belligerent submarines are not in any circumstances exempt from the rules applicable to surface vessels, and, that any submarine commander who violates any of these rules should be liable to trial and punishment for an act of piracy, and that prohibition of the use of submarines as commerce-destroyers should be universally accepted as part of the law of nations in view of the practical impossibility of using them in this way and at the same time giving due protection to the lives of neutrals and non-combatants. , The legal experts are now considering whether any modification of these principles is considered desirable.

“OUTLOOK DISTINCTLY PROMISING” MR. PHILIP SNOWDEN HOPEFUL (British Official Wireless,) Rugby, February 23. Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech last night at Huddersfield, referred to the work of the Naval Conference. Mr. Snowden said that probably some people thought that by this time the Conference ought to have arrived at some conclusion, but international conferences never worked very quickly. From all he had heard the outlook at the Conference was distinctly promising, and seemed to point to thpre being some ..arrangement made by which the tremendous burden of naval expenditure would be considerably lightened. APPROVAL OF TARDIEU STANDPOINT Paris, February 22. M. Sarraut, who will be a delegate to the London Conference if the Government secures a majority in the Chamber on February 25, visited M. Leygues and assured him of his own approval of M. Tardieu’s standpoint. M. Chautemps, the Premier, also conferred with M. Leygues, who promised advice that would in any way contribute to the defence of the interests of the navy in Fiance. AMERICAN ADVISER GOING HOME (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, February 23. Owing to ill-health from which he lias been suffering since his arrival in England, Rear-Admiral Hilary Jones, one of the advisers to the American Delegation to the Naval Conference, will return to America this week.