NAVAL CONFERENCE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16377, 27 June 1927, Page 8

NAVAL CONFERENCE

INCREASING MEASURE OF AGREEMENT THE BRITISH VIEW VULNERABILITY OF ARMED MMUCH A NT.\l EN. (British Official Wireless.) Bee. I p.m. I.O'NDON, June 26. Mr \\. U. Bridgeman, First Lord of the Admiralty, who is head of the British delegation at the Three Power Naval Conference at Geneva, yesterday expressed the view that the delegations were beginning to find some common ground on which they could get to work, and that as the proceedings continued he believed an increasing measure of agreement would he found. Already the experts, Mr Bridgeman said, had cleared up or diminished some of the difficulties which at first seemed serious. As to the extension of the life of battleships, lie contested the view that it would be a. revision of the Washington Treaty. The declaration of the intention of the three leading naval Powers not to exercise their full rights under the treaty would make it easier for the others to adhere later and strengthen the sense of security for the world, thus facilitating the task of the League of Nations Disarmament Committee. “We cannot go home,” said Mr Po'idgeman, “without, having discussed this very fully.”. With reference to the suggestions regarding the conversion of merchant ships into an armed fleet, these are not taken seriously hv naval experts, laird Jellicoe, in a recent statement, characterised them as "a landsman’s idea.” He added: “An armed merchantman of large tonnage equipped with guns mounted in awkward parts of the ship and manned by a reserve crew would he no match for the smallest and most insignificant. cruiser. It- would present a large target- of the character of an egg shell with a mass of top hamper and highly vulnerable machinery. Any well-organised and properly constructed cruiser would be ready to take on an unlimited number of such ships.” BRITISH PRESS OPINION. The British press in discussing the issue at the conference, express tho hope that American opposition to the British proposals for reducing the tonnage of battleships to 30,000, and their guns from 16in. to 13.5 in., will be withdrawn. The Observer emphasises the fact that “the proposal is consistent with the spirit in which the Washington Agreement- Conferences have been convened and the maintenance of the 35,000 ton standard means an unnecessary burden for the taxpayer, not- only of the countries insisting on uneconomical ships but for other countries bound to follow their example.” The Sunday Times says: “Summoned by American initiatitve to debate on the possibilities of the limitation Of naval armaments, the British naval authorities have prepared and presented a fully thought-out scheme, putting all theilr cards on the table and defining the British position, with clearness. There can never be any opportunity for a critic to say hereafter that the first, naval power in the world, and one to whom the sea means the most, did not when ’■uvvfed speak her mind and disclose her wishes with absolute freedom.”