ARMS DECISION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 7

ARMS DECISION

FRANCE TO FACE ISSUE. BRITAIN STUDYING REPLY. MORE INFORMATION REQUIRED. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received April 9, 11.0 a.m. RUGBY, April 7.

The French reply to the latest British inquiries on disarmament has been received at the Foreign Office. It is understood that it is a brief document containing no definite proposals pending fuller consideration by the French Government of the question of guarantees. It is stated by Paris Pi’ess correspondents that the result of this further examination will form the subject of a later communication. Meanwhile, further and more precise information is sought regarding the British proposals. The Times’s Paris correspondent says this should be l-egardod as a sign that tbe French Government is now prepared to face a momentous decision that must profoundly influence international relations. The correspondent adds that, viewed in this light, the reply promises real progress towards the achievement of a disarmament convention. The French Note has been subjected to a perliininary examination by Sir John Simon and the advisers in the Foreign Office. POLICY OF LIMITATION. THE FRENCH OPINION. LONDON, April 7. The keynote of the latest French Note to Britain is that the disarmament talks are doomed, and will be replaced by the question of limitation of armaments. It points out that the British plan of a 10 years’ disarmament convention involving German equality is “hopelessly out of date” in view of Germany’s swollen military estimates and possible intention further to rearm. M. Barthou (Minister of Foreign Affairs) assured Mr Arthur Henderson, President of tlie Disarmament Conference, that France would support the proposal to convene the Disarmament Commission on April 23. Mr Henderson, interviewed, said that it was certain that the meeting would result in a convention, though probabiy some nations would not sign.