NAVAL CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 9

NAVAL CRISIS

LONDON PARLEYS WITHDRAWAL OF JAPAN DEMAND FOR EQUALITY CHARGE OF UNFAIRNESS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON. Jan. 14 It is authoritatively stated that Japan has decided to withdraw from the Naval Conference but has not decided whether she will leave observers at it. The conference is to be continued on a Four-Power basis. The British and American _ delegations conferred this morning as to its future. The Japanese decision was conveyed to the British delegation because Britain summoned the conference. The British delegation passed it on to the Americans at .an informal

meeting held to consider the future of the conference, when Japan s departure was officially notified. The Japanese spokesman said: * "The breakdown of the conference is not due to the adamant attitude of Japan but to the adamant opposition of the other delegates to her claim for a common upper limit. The refusal of all the other Powers to concede equality to Japan is so clear that it may be unnecessary to take a vote on the question of how far the meetings can be usefully continued on a Four-Power basis. "We do not think the result of our withdrawal will be a building race. We do not want, and do not mean, to build up to the level of Britain and the United States. Though the United States, in building up to treaty limits, is causing uneasiness in Japan, unless naval competition is created by others we do not intend to start. "The Washington and London treaties have proved unsatisfactory. The j 55 —3 ratio established at ashing- j ton is unfair to Japan. We see no reason, why it should be perpetuated." No astonishment was caused bv the Japanese decision, which brought a measure of relief to the delegations, whose patience has long been tried by \dmiral Nagano's persistence in the forlorn hope that the other Powers would agree to equality. One effect of the breakdown will be to draw the British and American delegates into closer relations. DEFIANT GESTURE PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES AMERICA'S BUILDING PLANS (Received January 15. fi.s p.m.) LONDON. Jan. 15 Writing: in the Daily Telegraph Mr. Hector Bywater says Japan's defiant gesture has rendered inevitable the completion of the American building programme, which by 1942 will gbe the United States the world's greatest Navy. The situation would become more dangerous should America decide to carry out her plan of creating new naval bases in the Pacific. In that case Britain might be compelled to reconsider her strategic position there, including the restoration of the defences of Hongkong, which have not been touched for 16 years and are now out of date.