NEXT NAVAL CONFERENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 12

NEXT NAVAL CONFERENCE

Doubts of the possibility of another naval conference in the near future have lately grown apace. Japan's action last December, in giving notice of intention to terminate the Washington Treaty, brought into operation the provision for ending it, as for all signatories, on December 31, 1936. On that date, by mere effluxion of time, the London Treaty expires. So there has been an unpleasant prospect of a world without any widely international agreement to limit navies, for the recent Anglo-German under-standing, of limited value in itself, gave little ground for hope of its becoming a basis of other bilateral arrangements, and the Disarmament Conference is only nominally alive. The world has been resigning itself to the probability of a renewed race in naval armaments, a probability increased by the onslaught of Italy upon Abyssinia, with inevitable effect; 3 upon activity in the Mediterranean. However, acceptance of this unpromising position lias been reluctant. Construction programmes have been accompanied by assurances of a merely defensive purpose, and the signatories of all the existing agreements have disavowed immediate intentions of building beyond the limits of these compacts. Although such declarations have been the sole sign of a readiness to avoid competition, they have been sufficient to prevent utter despair. Now the British invitation to a conference on December 2 fans the dwindling spark of hope The time for action by orie or other of the naval Powers was getting perilously short. By the terms of the Washington Treaty and the prescribed effect of Japan's decision to terminate it, the signatories to that treaty have been placed under obligation to meet again within a year of December 31, 1936, and the signatories to the London Treaty were to reassemble before the end of this year. Had the London arrangement for another conference fallen through it is extremely doubtful whether the similar arrangement at Washington would have been honoured later. Tn the course of next year, that is, a naval armaments race might have acquired such momentum that a conference in 1937 would have been little favoured. Just in time, therefore, the British invitation has been issued. Tt goes to the United States, Japan, France and Italy; to the last two because, while they declined to accept the London Treaty, they were parties at Washington. The United States, it is indicated, will co-operate, and Japan expressed a like willingness when declaring naval policy some time ago: France can be reckoned as agreeable : Ttalv, too, unless the present trouble has an untoward outcome. Only the initial difficulty of harmony when the agenda is considered is to be seriously feared. Even with the risk of this, to-day's news iB very welcome.