IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23224, 23 June 1937, Page 14

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

DEFENCE DISCUSSIONS FUTURE OF THE LEAGUE " VERY DISILLUSIONING " (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, May 26. The general trend of the discussions of the Imperial Conference have been followed with great interest in London, and, although only the broad lines upon which they are proceeding can be revealed by communiques, at present these, together with information gleaned by political and diplomatic correspondents, are followed closely every day. According to the Daily Telegraph correspondent, the remarks of Mr M. J. Savage, New Zealand Prime Minister, upon the subject of Imperial defence %ere awaited with " some interest because he is head of a Socialist Government."

Mr Savage, naturally, had made little comment upon the conference, and it is expected that he will not depart from this rule until the conclusion of the discussions.

According to the diplomatic correspondent of the Morning Post, the future of the League of Nations has been one of the chief subjects of discussion in the Imperial Conference. " Some of the delegates came to the conference with the idea that the Covenant of the League might still provide the basis for a common policy within the Empire. Mr Eden's expose of the international situation has been very disillusioning on this point," he says. DAMNING INFORMATION "The gathered by the British Government during the Abyssinian episode is far more damning in regard to the League than anything that has been published. Although in the matter of foreign policy there are no secrets which the Government keep from the Governments of the dominions, a fuller picture can naturally be given in a conference than through the normal channels of communication. The discussions in London have thus provided the domonion Ministers with their first opportunity of ascertaining the facts at firsthand. The views of some of them on what the League is capable of achieving have been considerably modified as a result.

"There is, for instance, a much deeper realisation among the delegates than there was before the conference opened of the fallacies in ' collective security.' The failure of the attempt to organise universal action on behalf of Abyssinia has shown that no country is prepared to take risks for the League unless its own vital interests are threatened. This leads to certain conclusions which the Imperial Conference has not been slow to adopt. " One of them is the need for replacing the universal principle represented at Geneva by something more practical. The British Government have already declared their preference for regional pacts in so far as Europe is concerned, and this system, which tends to limit British commitments on the Continent, has, on the whole, met with approval in the conference. Its application to the other parts of the Empire is less easy, as the reception of the Pacific Pact proposals has shown. The tendency of the dominions, I believe, will be to seek their security through mutual help within the Empire rather than by arrangements outside." IMPORTANT PROBLEM

"The Empire Premiers and Defence Ministers are in agreement with service opinion in this country that the problem of military supplies, both in peace and in war, is one of the most important now facing them," is the comment of the Daily Telegraph. " Points to be discussed by the committee include: The building of Empire arms factories in the dominions, safe from air attack and able to send supplies to Britain; and a policy to ensure that the ' working parts' of the ImDerial defence machine are, as far as possible, interchangeable. v " The immediate task of the committee is to ascertain how far individual dominions are able to satisfy their own requirements of defence equipment. In the past the United Kingdom has been regarded as the arsenal of the Empire. Recent developments have rendered it desirable to modify this policy. It has been foreseen that Britain might be gravely handicapped in a future war by the vulnerability of her munition works from the air and the difficulty of securing raw materials from the dominions and despatching munitions to them. " Some progress has already been made in making defence equipment interchangeable. Thus' Australia, which is erecting two new munition factories, will be prepared to supply New Zealand and the requirements of the naval base at Singapore. Her aircraft works, which are now building American model planes, will be adapted to build British models." SHIPPING American shipping competition in the trans-Tasman Sea trade between New Zealand and Australia was discussed this week by the Pacific sub-committee of the Imperial Conference Committee on Shipping Questions. Mr Walter Nash (Minister of Finance) presided. Measures for the protection of the British lines are being worked out carefully. It is understood that delegates are considering the advisability of restricting to British shipping the carriage of passengers and freights across the Tasman Sea. They have in mind that the trade between American ports in the Pacific has been similarly restricted to national ships by the United States Government. To prevent this, plans have recently been drawn up for a subsidised service to be operated by the Canadian-Australasian Company, with two new ships running from Vancounter to San Francisco, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.

The cost of the ships was put at about £2,500,000, to be provided by loan and repaid in 20 annual instalments of £ 125,000. The Pacific subcommittee will have to decide how the cost of such a service, so vital to Empire defence, is to be proportioned between the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. To such a decision the determination of a common policy for the trans-Tasman trade is a necessary preliminary.