DIVERGENT VIEWS NAVAL DISARMAMENT

Evening Post, Issue 122, 26 May 1933, Page 7

DIVERGENT VIEWS

NAVAL DISARMAMENT

QUALITY OE QUANTITY

REDUCTION UNDER TREATY

WHAT BRITAIN HAS DONE

(British Official Wireless.) (Received May 26, li a.m.) RUGBY, May 25. Divergent views were . expressed in the General Commission of the Disarmament Conference today when naval disarmament was con- j sidered. The French delegate, M.J Massigli, considered that qualitative disarmament should be applied on sea as on land and advocated a reduction in the size of capital ships to 25,000 tons and of cruisers to 8000 tons. The London Naval Treaty should, he said, be revised and there should be a general treaty for all. The Japanese delegate, Mr. Sato, proposed that a new naval agreement should replace the Washington and London Naval Treaties, and that it should be included in the future Disarmament Convention. The British delegate, Mr. Anthony Eden, having pointed out that Britain had not built up to the tonnage allowed her by the London Naval Treaty, said that as a result of the Washington Treaty IjSoO^O.O tons of ships had been destroyed and the way had been prepared for further reductions made at the London Naval Conference, where capital ships-were further reduced and gun , calibre limited, and where live cruisers which Britain intended to build had been stopped. Britain had reduced her total tonnage by 100,000, and asked Other countries to act iii a similar manner. The next Naval Conference, due in 1935, should, in his view, consist not only of big naval Powers but should be open to all the Powers interested in naval matters. He urged that the ' principles agreed to by the five naval Powers be respected by everybody, that the status quo bo maintained until the next Conference, and that negotiations should continue so that further and important reductions might then bo ma.de. The" American delegate, Mr. Norman Davis, expressed full approval of Mr. Eden's remarks. He pointed out that the two Naval Treaties had halted the naval armament race, and expressed a desire that the London Treaty's framework should bo completed by the signatures of i Trance and Italy. He urged delegates to accept the article in the British plan by which signatories to Naval, Treaties would remain bound by the reductions therein imposed.