NAVAL TREATY "TOR PEDO"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 13

NAVAL TREATY "TOR PEDO"

"HOPE MUST BE ABANDONED* (Specially -written for "The Post.") PARIS, 4th April. All English and American hopes thai naval rivalry had been ended for eveß at the Washington Conference must ba abandoned if the French Chamber follows the recommendation of the Rapport teur of the Foreign Affiairs Commission,. Of course, it. is not even certain that th« Commission itself will agree with this deputy's conclusions, but the general feeling suggests, unfortunately, that both the Commission and the Chamber will do po. The Bapporteur advocates ni policy which, while involving ratification; for the fixed period of ten years, automatically denounces the naval tr-eaties at the end of this prelimnary terms. This means that France does not accept the spirit of the naval armament reduction; treaties afc all. She accepts the latter for the ten 1 years' period, because she is unable to build more ships than, arej allotted 1, in the accords. But she refuses to agree permanently to the proportions stipulated at Washington. Looking "ahead, the Rapporteur, imagines thef French Government in powe 4 r ten years hence might have difficulty in denounce ing the Treaty, so he prefers that ib should he done in advance. It is very? regrettable from the British and Amerihencs might have difficulty in denounction by ona Power means the revival of the whole naval supremacy race, however little other nations may desire that.