THE ANGLO-FRENCH CONVERSATIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20522, 25 September 1928, Page 8

THE ANGLO-FRENCH CONVERSATIONS.

The naval “ conversations ” which were initiated in March last between Great Britain and France were the subject of an announcement by Sir Austen Chamberlain in the House of Commons at the end of July when he stated that their objective, the reduction of the ” difference ” between the two Powers, had been achieved, and he was about to communicate the compromise arrived at to the other naval Powers in the hope that it would be acceptable to them also. The secrecy that accompanied these Anglo-French discussions and the comment that was thus encouraged of a speculative kind, particularly in the French papers, seem to have led to distorted ideas of what has really been taking place. The purpose of the conversations was evidently no more than the removal of obstacles in the way of progress on the part of the Preparatory Disarmament Commission of the League of Nations. When the Commission was last in session at Geneva it found it impossible to proceed with the draft convention on disarmament because a definite disagreement existed between Great Britain and France—and other States as well—on the matter of the classification of naval armaments. It was realised that an agreed basis of computation was necessary. The main point of difference was whether naval strength should be counted according to gross tonnage or by separate categories. The French

view, which was supported by several other Continental countries, was that each State should be allotted so much tonnage, and should be allowed to use it in the construction of as many ships as desired, and of any class, so long as their total tonnage did not exceed the prescribed maximum. The British view was that, as special countries have special needs, total tonnage was an inadequate gauge, and that the numbers and sizes of ships in the different classes should be specified. Sir Austen Chamberlain made it clear that the proposals were “ purely naval.” From French sources came the statement that France had agreed to consider naval limitation by categories. Conjectural discussion took a wider range when the Manchester Guardian pointedly inquired what the ■' concession ” w r as upon which the entire French press appeared to be commenting with much satisfaction. At the Geneva meeting of the Preparatory Disarmament Commission Great Britain had opposed the exclusion of trained reserves from future schemes for the limitation of land armaments, whereas France had inflexibly maintained that there must be this exclusion. This difference of opinion was the subject of the question put by the Manchester Guardian, which no doubt tended to heighten curiosity respecting the actual nature of the naval discussions and the nature of the agreement. And now, before replies have been received from the other Powers to which draft copies of the

compromise ” were sent, the Hearst press in the United States has secured and published a letter, apparently from the French Foreign Office to the French Embassies, containing reference to the terms of this naval understanding There is apparently nothing at all sensational in this letter, while in view of Lord Cushendun’s explicit assurance that the Anglo-French proposals lapse automatically in the event of their not being approved by other Powers, the attempt to attach particular significance to the conversations as affecting the relations between Great Britain and France seems to have been more misleading than otherwise. As, however, the agreement represents merely a suggested plan for the effective promotion of renewed discussions on disarmament there can have been no real cause for veiling it in so much mystery. A useful purpose might have been served and a good deal of misrepresentation and suspicion avoided if its terms had received immediate publication.