SCRAP THE LOT

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 20 January 1930, Page 5

SCRAP THE LOT

PROPOSAL FROM ITALY BATTLESHIP PROBLEM SUPPORT FOR ANY REDUCTION. rresu Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.! LONDON, Jan. IS. The ‘’Daily Mail’ .gives prominence to a telegram from Geneva to the etlect that Sign-or Grandi's speecn on Tuesday may be as startling as Mr. Hughes’ speech at Washington in 1921. Signor Mussolini wants his delegate to announce startling proposals, which are that Italy is prepared to scrap practically her entire neet.

Tne Italian Government realises that any agreement at tiie conrerenee will leave Italy one o£ the weakest naval powers. Accordingly complete naval disarmament is ooviously to her advantage- The financial position oi Italy makes naval parity with France an idle dream.

Apart irom liis opening gesture, Signor Grandi will oiler support to any American demand for drastic reductions. signor Mussolini considers it intolerable the strong Powers should be aide to leave their weaker bretlu ren in a state oi hopeless inlerionty. The impression prevails in Washington, -says a cable, that the American delegation will not oppose consideration oi Mr. MacDonald's proposal to abolish capital ships providing certain definite conditions are met before the subject is introduced. Informal observers feel that the London Conference is not suited to the discussion of capital ship abolition simply because the agenda already contains extremely difficult questions, which take precedence over such abolition. Less than one-seventli oi the space in the Royal Gallery at the House ot lx>rds will be occupied oy. the delegates at a liorshoe table at the opening of the naval conference. The remainder will be crammed tight to accommodate 380 journalists from all parts of the world. There will be no room lor • supply tables for them, so they will have to write on their knees.

The room is a magnificent -setting, the galleries being in gold with knotted scarlet panels, gilded freizes and imposing paintings in which there are striking contrasts —epic martial event of history with the present world attempt to escape from the more fearsome modern methods of destruction. The delegates will sit immediately beneath a huge mura 1 canvas of Lord Nelson’s death at the battle of Trafalgar. Facinjen them will be another, the “Rattle of Waterloo.” It will be a wonderful occasion to which the whole worTd will be listening if the atmospherics behave themselves.

WILL SCRAP ELEVEN FIVE YEARS HOLIDAY. AMERICAN SUGGESTIONS. NEW YORK, Jan. 18. 'lhe Herald Tribune’s Washington correspondent states: “In advance of an announcement of the formal policy of the American delegation at the London Conference it was learned officially to-day that the United States is prepared not only to declare a live years’ battleship holiday but to scrap permanently li capital ships which would become obsolete at the end of the’holiday. “It can be announced on the same high authority that as an alternative to drastic reductions of the battleship fleets the United States is prepared to recommend a reduction of the authorised size of capital ships from 35,(J0G tons to considerably less than 25,01)0 tons, the lowest figure yet proposed by Britain lor capital ships of the future.”

BRITISH PROGRAMME PROPOSALS REPEATED. RUGBY, Jan. 17. In relation to tlie British programme for the conference it is pointed out that a. proposal much to the same effect was made by the late Conservative Government at the Geneva conference and met with a hopeful reception. Viscount Bridgeman estimates that it it had been adopted it would have meant a saving of about £SO, OUifiOOU in the period of replacement. “Iso doubt the reductions advocated can hardly be as sweeping as both the economists and an important section of naval opinion would hope to see them,” says the “Times.” “The British Government is rightly sensitive to the danger of bringing forward too drastic proposals, which might wreck all chance of agreement out, after the long years during which, through unrestricted Competition, the size and cost of every class of warship have soared continuously upward, an agreement to reverse the process at all would be a very welcome achievement.”

TY PI STES THRILLED. STATES NAVAL • OLURKS.” LONDON, Jan. 18. .Seventeen of Americas prettiest typishes, attired in Washington's latest iaslnons, arrived with the American naval delegation. 'They are getting even greater publicity than the other odd members of the party, several of whom characteristically claim descent from the original Mayfair passengers. It is revealed that the delegation’s ship carried its own beer brewing plant until the publicity given to it caused the State Department at Washington to wireless: “Throw the brewery overboard.” They did. Seven of the “clurks,” as the girls describe themselves, belong to the State Department and ten to the Navy Department. “There was an awful scramble for this job,” they explained, “hundreds ancl hundreds appliedWe are thrilled to death.”

It is stated that the whole delegation pooled their resources, amounting to £40,000. The living expenses of the party at the Ritz and Mayfair Hotels are estimated at £IOOO a day.

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES UNDER. WATER CRAFI. CRUISER. RATIO. Received 11 am. to-day. LONDON, Jan. 19. The first effective work of the Naval Conference will he done on Monday morning when the heads of the delegations meet to settle the procedure for postponing the sessiorf. The Observer’s” diplomatic write: sets out the main controversial issues as follow: “First, France and Japan are rigidly opposed to the AngloAmerican demand for the abolition of ► submarines. Secondly, Japan is likely

to soften the opposition to- the abolition of submarines to some extent if the British Empire and United States will do the same to Japans claim for a 10 —10 —7 ratio, instead of 55 —3 ratio for cruisers. Thirdly, should Italy’s demand for parity with France be discontinued, there is- a rumour that Signor Grandi contemplates a gesture similar to Litvinoif’s at Geneva, in favour of the total abolition of navals. It is considered Italy may ultimately make such a demand, if parity with France is unobtainable by other means.”

M. Briarjd lias arrived in London. Ho expressed the opinion that the opinion that the Conference was facing a difficult problem, stating: “There will ho as much to do outside as inside the conference room. I am hoping return bo Paris within 10 days after the appointment of the expert committees. Thereafter M. Tardieu and I shall alternate between London and Paris.”