NAVAL ARMS CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19698, 26 July 1927, Page 9

NAVAL ARMS CONFERENCE.

BRITISH CABINET'S TASK.

LIMITS OF CONCESSIONS.

KING SEES MR. BRIDGEMAN.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received July 25, 5.35 pjn.) A. and N.Z.-Sun. LONDON, July 25. The diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says to-day's meeting of the British Cabinet will be a momentous one. The Ministers will have to make decisions defining the exact limits of British concessions to America and Japan. The correspondent says Britain's cruiser squadrons in the Mediterranean had to be gravely depleted in order to provide the cruiser force required for the Pacific in order to cope with the Chineso dangers. That is where the adoption of a 12— 12—8 ratio for largo cruisers might threaten Britain's naval security and the communications of the Empire, unless a substantial surplus of small, but not necessarily modern, cruisers be conceded to Britain. Fortunately, says the writer, the Chinese crisis happened when there was no danger of a war in Europe, otherwise the British Fleet in the middle seas would have been unduly weak. American opinion has failed to realise this. The King gave an audience to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Bridgeman. It is believed it was in reference to the Geneva negotiations.