NAVAL CONFERENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 75, 24 February 1930, Page 7

NAVAL CONFERENCE

THE FRENCH DELEGATION.

LEAVING FOR LONDON CONTINUITY OF POLICY. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received February 24. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 23. It is anticipated that the French delegation to the Naval Conference will leave for London on Wednesday. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Aristide Briand, will head the delegation which, as before, will comprise the Ministers for Marine and Colonies. The new holders of these offices are MM. Sarraut and Famoureaux. It was stated by the French Prime Minister to-day that the Government would take the necessary steps to assure a continuity of policy at the conUntil the arrival of the French delegates the conference stands adjourned. SUBMARINE QUESTION. The only progress that has been possible in the interval is the preliminary survey of certain aspects of the submarine question which were referred to legal experts./ The speeches made at the plenary session indicated a strong desire on the part of all the delegations to do what was possible to “humanise”- the use of submarines. No question of the limitation of the size of vessels is before these experts, who had a further informal meeting)■ yesterday, when the Root Convention signed at Washington in 1922—owing to non-ratification by France it never came into operation —was taken as the starting point for their review. The convention declared that belligerent submarines are not in any circumstances exempt from the rules applicable to surface vessels, that any submarine commander who violates any of these rules should be liable to trial and punishment for an act of piracy, and tliat the prohibition of the use of submarines as commerce destroyers should be universally accepted as part of the law of nations, in view of the practical impossibility of using them in this way, and at the same time giving due protection to the lives of neutrals and non-combat-ants.

The legal experts are now considering whether any modification of these principles is considered desirable.

PROMISING OUTLOOK

Mr Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech at Huddersfield, referred to the work of the Naval Conference.

Mr Snowden said that probably some people thought that by this time the conference ought to have arrived at some conclusion. But international conferences never worked very quickly. From all he had heard, the outlook at the conference was distinctly promising and seemed to point to there being some arrangement made by which the tremendous burden of naval expenditure would be considerably lightened.

FRENCH ATTITUDE. Received February 24, 10.5 a.m. PARIS, Feb. 22. M. Sarrout, who will be a delegate to the London Conference if the Government secures a majority in the Chamber of Deputies on February 25, visited M. Leygues and assured him of his own approval of M. Tardieu’s standpoint. M. Chautemps, the new Premier, also conferred with M. Leygues, who promised advice in any matter contributing to the defence interests of the navy of France.