WORLD'S ARMAMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18929, 29 January 1925, Page 9

WORLD'S ARMAMENTS.

S ATTITUDE OF AMERICA, j 1 <4l || . ' j PROPOSED NEW CONFERENCE. NEW YORK. Jan. 16. The New York World says that President Coolidge will call another Armaments Conference in May or June. The worldwide tendency to lapse into competitive arming, besides the non-ratification of some of the' first Washington Conference treaties, and the American low rank in cruiser strength, are factors causing the President's decision. The Washington correspondent of the World declares that President Coolidge is faced with the difficult choice of initiating a vast naval programme of light cruisers, or else inducing Britain and Japan to scrap enough of their secondary ships to maintain the 5-5-3 ratio throughout the entire navy. Senator Borah, with the hops erf getting Russia into the next conference, has been urging the President to consider economic questions chiefly. President Coolidge, however, declined to agree, and it is certain that Russia will not be invited to this conference, at its inception, at any rate. It is expected that the President will propose the extension of the capital ship limitation, including gun elevation, and battleships as airplane carriers, and the limitation of light cruisers. In all of these America is outclassed by Britain. An attempt has also been planned to bring to date unratified treaties with China and the Far East. Largely, however, the proposal for the new conference comes as a reaction to the campaign of the Hearst journals, who pictured the destruction of American battleships like the Washington, while Britain was completing marvellous new airplane-carrying battleships, like the Nelson and Rodney, and fleets of light cruisers.