NAVAL LIMITATION

Evening Star, Issue 19637, 17 August 1927, Page 5

NAVAL LIMITATION

THE GENEVA CONFERENCE AMERICAN DELEGATES RETURN NO TANGIBLE RESULTS. Press Association—By Teicgraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, August 15. Mr Hugh Gibson and Rear-admiral Hilary Jones, who headed the American delegation to the Geneva. Conference, relumed to-day. When intein lowed. Admiral Jones said: “After all is said and done, it must be recognised that tho United States is an island empire, and, just as any other great centralised nation, it must depend tor its prosperity upon sea communication.

“ I do not believe that any tangible result will be attained by those limita-tion-of-arms parleys. Directly the pacifists start clamoring for disarmament to prevent war, manufacturers of arms immediately begin to receive large orders, and make a lot ol money. No Government will scrap good material in future, whether warships or guns. I know of one big arms factory that owes the commencement of its prosperity to the holding of the first peace conference at The Hague.” MR HUGH GIBSON. Among the members of the American delegation which conferred with Britain and Japan in regard to naval matters, the most notable figure was that of Mr Hugh Gibson, a diplomat of considerable standing and influence. Ho first entered the service of the United States in 100 S, when lie was appointed secretary of Ihc legation at Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he remained for a little over twelve mouths, when he was transferred to London as second secretary to the Embassy. Returning to the United States in 1910, Mr Gibson became private .secretary to the Assist-ant-Secretary of State, after which lie went successively to Cuba and San Domingo, visiting tho latter place on a special mission to observe tho elections there. When the Great War started Mr Gibson was secretary of tho Legation at Brussels, but the occupation of Belgian territory caused his Government to remove him to London, where lie again entered the Embassy. When the British Mission, with Mr Balfour (now Earl Balfour) at his head, visited the United States in 1917, Mr Gibson was attached to it in an advisory capacity. and during tho visit to America of the Belgian War Mission ho occupied a similar position. When the war was over he joined -Mr Hoover in arranging for the relief of the peoples of the war-stricken areas, and it was hero that lie proved his ability as an organiser as well as a diplomat. Last year Mr Gibson became American Ambassador to Belgium, which post ho still occupies. As head of tho American Delegation to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva, lie was the virtual mouthpiece of Ids country, during which ho said that the opinion of his Government was that the conditions wore so different in various regions of tho world, and tho factors entering into the situation so divergent, that a constructive achievement could only he arrived at by regional agreement rather than by any effort to work out a general plan for the whole world. To this he added the remark that the practical approach in the matter of limiting land armaments appeared to be through tbo limitation of visible armaments.