A NEW PROPOSAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17232, 11 April 1930, Page 7

A NEW PROPOSAL

THE NAVAL CONFERENCE PARTIAL FIVE-POWER PACT MODIFIED TREATY rOSSIBLE. (British Official Wireless.) Roe. 12 noon. .RUGBY, April 10. Efforts to secure a full five-Power agreement have nod been abandoned. On a number of technical matters, the five Powers are in agreement, arid it it understood that the question of whether these should be embodied in a treaty form to be signed by all Powers represented at the conference was discussed in conference quarters to-day. The. newspapers state that the broad outlines of the form fwhich such an agreement, might, take were considered to-day at tho headquarters of the French delegation, when Mr. Stimson. accompanied by bis colleague. Mr. Dwight Morrow, met M. Behind. The proposal, which is, of course, purely tentative, and is one of several which are under consideration, unoilicially is said to comprise three parts, of which parts one and two might be signed by all five Powers, and part three, by Britain, the United States, and Japan.

It. is suggested that part one should preserve the agreement reached between the delegations On the subject of what is called a naval holiday in capital ships and large aircraft carriers, and the speeding up of scrapping should embody a table which represents the agreed compromise between the category and global methods of limiting naval tonnage, and should apply definitions of exempt and special ships which lie outside these categories. FINAL PLENARY SESSION Part two, it is stated, relates to methods for humanising submarine warfare, upon which an agreement, was reached in committee among the representatives of tho fivo Powers this week. Within this framework, it is suggested that a three-rower agreement might be embodied, and this would be dealt, with in part three of the proposed draft. Efforts to secure a more far-reaching agreement as an outcome of tho conference, however, were continued throughout the day, and lasted until late this evening. The French and United Kingdom delegations met before noon. Shortly after noon Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Henderson were in conversation with the Italian Ambassador and Signor Rossi. The British Empire delegation had a meeting later, and at 6.30 to-night M. Briand visited Mr. "MacDonald at his Downing Street residence to review once more the position of the conference. An official communique, says: "The French, Italian, and United Kingdom delegations met at No. 10 Downing Street this evening. The present state of tho negotiations was considered with a view to a report to the beads of delegations on Friday morning." The heads of delegations will to-mor-row proceed with tho drafting of a treaty which will emerge from the conference as indicated above. This will probably comprise certain articles to be signed by three powers, only leaving certain questions for later settlement. What will probably bo tho final plenary meeting, apart from that for the signing of the treaty, will be held on Monday or Tuesday.

"The situation is very active," explained the official British spokesman to-day. "Mr. Stimson and Mr. MacDonald met, and later the English, Americans, and Japanese conferred and polished oil' the last outstanding points in the way of a clear conclusion of a three-power treaty" The spokesman .said European activities showed that the hope of some sort of a five-power pact had not been abandoned.