NAVAL DISARMAMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20942, 4 February 1930, Page 9

NAVAL DISARMAMENT

THE LONDON CONFERENCE. BRITISH AND FRENCH VIEWS. THE FRAILEST OP PARTITIONS. (British Official Wireless.) •(United Press Association.) , ' (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) ' RUGBY, February 1. . There will be no committee work during the week-end by the Naval Conference delegates. M. Tardieu is paying a short visit to Paris, where M. Briand preceded him yesterday. Signor Grand! and Mr Wakatsuki are going to the seaside, and Mr MacDohald to his official country residence at Chequers. The delegates will take much work with'them, including papers relating to a proposal .whereby the British category and the French global theories are correlated. On this complicated and important "problem there 'is hope of a solution. Mr MacDonald's optimistic statement that the partition dividing the French and British is so thin as to be almost transparent is borne out in French delegation circles. Britain is unlikely to accept the compromise proposal formally, however, until the views of the other delegations at the conference have been defined and until the ■whole- matter has been thrashed out 'in committee.. , The so-called First Committee has now been turned into a committee of all the delegates, and is in effect the conference sitting as a committee in private. The next meeting as at present arranged will take place on Tuesday. " ' The newspapers call attention to the significance of .the recent announcement regarding the reduction in the British naval construction programme for 192030. It is reckoned that the naval tonnage which Britain would in the ordinary course have laid down in the current financial year has been reduced by nearly, 30,000 tons, or over 50 per cent. This is regarded as an impressive lead to the conference, although some newspapers consider the cancellations excessive, particularly as they have been made without any effort to U6e such reductions for bargaining with the other naval Powers. . BRITAIN'S LATEST; CUTS. ' COMMENT BY DAILY HERALD. ' . LONDON, February 2. . (Received Feb. 3, at 5.5 p.m.) The Daily Herald, justifying the latest fiaval cuts, says: " The foreign delegates at the conference fully realise the signifi cance of the Governments revision of its naval programme. The cuts entail a total saving of £9,000,000, and they are of two kinds—first, cancellation of. the cruisers the Surrey and the Northumberland, the preliminary work on which is , being scrapped; second, reduction in the 1929 programme before any work is begun or orders are placed. This is not one-sided disarmament. It is a measure of, the Government's confidence of the outcome of the conference. If the. conference succeeds the vessels dropped will not be required, and the Government has therefore decided not to begin work which ■ ■ .might have to be scrapped later: ' : The change will not entail discharge of Government dockyard employees. \ FURTHER GESTURE BY BRITAIN. AIR ESTIMATES CUT DOWN. LONDON, February 3. (Received Feb. 3, at 8 p.im) ' ' The Daily Telegraph follows up the 'disclosures regarding the cancellation of warship construction with details of- the Government's '\ " pacific intentions in the air service." The Royal Air Force, estimates are also, made the occasion of a disarmament gesture, and the estimates' for the coming year provide for only a fraction of the addition to the force-according to the defence standard framed in 1923. ' The . intention is :to. pTovide only one new fighter squadron, making 13, whereas under the 1923 programme it should be brought to 18. Despite the fact that; 34 regular and non-regular bombing squadrons are required by the end of 1930 we shall have only 24 bombing squadrons, though the programme for Home air defence was regarded as. a bare minir ro .and only a fraction of the force can be applied in an offensive against a foreign enemy.' Whereas France has 1350 first line aircraft and Italy 1000, Britain has , only 772 on sea and land. . DELEGATES AT CHEQUERS. PRIME MINISTER AS HOST. LONDON, February 2. " Milton wrote ' Paradise Lost,' but if we can achieve success with, the Naval Conference we shall have written across the page of history 'Paradise Regained.' Thus said one of the American delegates as he stood gazing at Milton's cottage at Chalfont St. Giles. . No one ever stands there, but feels the thrill .of the historic associations, apart froni the loveliness of the spot. How much more,' therefore, must it appeal to the members of the Naval Conference delegations and their wives and daughters, who are here on , the historic mission, now guided by Mr MacDonald. > The Labour Prime Minister is host at the wonderful house, Chequers, which was the gift of Lord Lees as a resting place for the Prime Ministers of Britain. . The ""visitors went on to Jordan's Meeting House and other sacred spots. "It has been the time of my life," said- Mr Stimson. " I shall never;forget that it is all Bacred ground. It reminded me of how we sprang from a common stock. We are blood brothers, and must ever live in peace, and mußt strive to establish peace in the world." Chalfont St. Giles is a village in Buckinghamshire. William Penn is buried in the Quaker's burial -ground attached to Jordan's Meeting House. Milton retired here during the Great Plague in 1665 to a pretty box, which his friend, Thomas Elwood, the Quaker, had hired for him, and in it he is said to have finished "Paradise Lost."