DISARMAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 37, 12 August 1921, Page 7

DISARMAMENT

CALL TO CONFERENCE ISSUED

JAPANESE PRESS SUSPICIOUS

FEARS A MENACE TO INDE-

PENDENCE.

(INItU MIIS iIBOCtATION.-CtrTH.UIT.) (itSTr.ALI.W - NIW ZSALAND CA»U ASSOCIATION.) (Received August 12, 9.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, 11th August. President Harding's formal call to the Disarmament and Pacific Conference has been despatched to.the various Powers. The call pdints out that, while naval armament will naturally have first place in the discnssions, the question of other armament will not be excluded. It may also be advisable.to control new agencies of war. The United States will not define the scope of the Far Bast discussions. This will be the subject of exchangee before the conference. LONDON, 11th August. A MorningPPostt t correspondent says that a study of the' Japanese vernacular press indicates a auspicious attitude towards tlio Washington Conference since Senator Knox tried to internationalise the Manchurian railway. Japan is slow to -accept the American proposals without the most careful investigation. Japan, realises that without the assistance of Western finance it could not have prosecuted past wars. This fact is making her cautious. ■ Her future defence will possibly be squeezed by Western finance. Japan regards' President Harding'* proposal as a new move to control^ Asia and decide the fate of Pacific nations by Occidentals, and is afraid of being drawn into a new combination of Powers, which will possibly menace her long-cherished independence.