GENEVA NAVAL CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 19713, 14 November 1927, Page 2

GENEVA NAVAL CONFERENCE

DISCUSSION IN LORDS DISARMAMENT STILL POSSIBLE, ■press Association—By Teicgraph—Copyright. LONDON, November 1,0. In the House of Lords Lord Wester Wemyss drew attention to.the breakdown of the Geneva Naval Conference. He said, “Our forces are in no wise too great to secure our trade .routes, and a reduction would be a risk no Government would accept. We are bound by, the declaration of Paris, to which , neither the United States nor Japan is a signatory. The command of the seas is essential to Britain, and once it is lost our resistance to tho enemy will bo broken down, and wo will be cut off from the world and incapable of maintaining our selves. This does not apply in the case of any other country, but so long as we adhere to tho declaration of Paris our geographical position is no asset to us. War, when once it breaks out, must be prolonged.” Ho thought, however, that in certain circumstances naval armaments might bo reduced without jeopardising our sea communications. Ho believed that ultimately there would not he peace through disarmament, but disarmament through peace, Earl, Stanhope, replying, said that the British Fleet was one of the greatest foundations of tho peace of the world. It would be impossible to withdraw from the declaration of Paris without admitting dangerous precedent that a party could withdraw from the treaty at any time. The only other way would bo by the consent of the other signatories or by inducing the Assembly of the League of Nations to revise, the, construction of the treaty as being inapplicable under article 19 i of the covenant. I

Viscount Haldane thought that Mr Bridgeman had spoken at Geneva too much as a seaman. Reduction should bo discussed on a wider basis than mere naval efficiency. He wished that befor the, conference the Government had been aided by the Committee of Imperial defence, not the Admiralty, and •had set out fully our plain necessities. It was a mistake to go to Geneva without a preliminary agreement, but the position was not hopeless. We must continue our efforts m the direction of disarmament, which was tho only hope of bringing largo economies. The, Earl of Balfour said that the abolition of the declaration of Paris would not be to our interests. Moreover, diplomatically it was wholly impossible. It was a difficult and delicate subject and parliamentary discussion might, lead to discord, not harmony. Ho did not believe tho naval Powers’ differences of opinion wore irreconcilable. Without tho British Fleet France’s resistance to Germany in tho Great War could not have lasted a year.

The House adjourned. [Lord Wester Wemyss was First Sea Lord from 1917 to 1919. Ho was m command of the squadron at the landing of tho troops at Gallipoli in 1915.]