ARMS LIMITATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 28, 3 January 1931, Page 7

ARMS LIMITATION

MUSSOLINI’S PEACE SPEECH

ITALY BUILDING WARSHIPS,

NAVAL HOLIDAY ABANDONED. (United Press Association —By Electvic Telegraph—Copyright.) (Times Cables.) LONDON, Jan. 1. The Times says that Signor. Mussolini’s first broadcast speech in English —a language in which recently he has been taking lessons from an English woman—was received in London and passed on to the United States by telephone. He said that he was most anxious to contradict the rumours spread abroad about Fascism’s alleged danger to the peace of the world.

As head of the Government every aspect of war’s ' terrible consequences was ever before him. Italy needed peace. Fascism desired to co-operate with other peoples in seeking a future of prosperity and peace. The Rome correspondent of the Times states: “Any extension of the Franco-ltalian naval holiday obviously has been abandoned. Newspapers give prominence to the list of vessels launched in 1930, totalling 59,000 tons and including six cruisers, six submarines and three destroyers, and refer to units being launched in 1931, including the 10,000-ton cruiser Pole, which is being laid down in March. The papers emphasise the Italian determination to achieve ‘constant and growing efficiency rendered necessary by the present international situation’.”

NAVAL TREATY IN FORCE,

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Jan. 1

The King’s instrument of ratification Jn respect of the Irish Free State, of the London Naval Treaty of 1930 was desposited to-day at the Foreign Office by the High Commissioner for the Irish Free State in London. The Treaty therefore is now in force.

UNITED STATES PROCLAMATION

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1. As a gestu.V of peace throughout the New Year, President Hoover to-day proclaimed the London Naval Treaty in effect for the United States.

The proclamation cited the effectiveness of the Five Power Pact, and called attention to its provisions linking the British Empire, Japan, Italy, France, and the United States in bonds of goodwill.