SMALLER NAVIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 112, 2 August 1927, Page 13

SMALLER NAVIES

PRESS DISCUSSION AMERICA CHANGES FRONT QUESTION of parity (British Official Wireless.J Heed. 11.12 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. The Geneva correspondent of "The Times" says that the American insistence on the eight-inch as against six-inch gun has been modified, and her opposition is now based on the amount suggested as new tonnage, although that amount is less than that originally put forward in the American proposal, and is very near to what in the earlier stages of the conference the United States regarded as a reasonable figure. “It was only when the Americans discovered that their own limits involved building if they wished to maintain parity that they shifted their ground. In the British view, the question of parity must be considered as the affair of the United States. The British delegation, with the approval and support of the British Government, is still guided by the principle that adequate protection of Empire trade routes is its first care. The mere fact that the enemy warships in the !ate war sank over 7 800,000 tons of shipping, carrying British supplies, should be argument enough that this is a matter no British statesman can trifle with. PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE “In the last few weeks attention of the public has been allowed to drift away from the original purpose of the conference. When the British Government consented to take part in the conference, it expressly stated that the views of His Majesty’s Government upon the special geographical position of the British Empire, the length of inter-imperial communications, and the necessity of protection of its food supplies, are well-known, and, together with the special conditions and requirements of the other countries invited to participate in the conversations, must be taken into account. AMERICA’S ALTERED IDEA “The principle that the level to which navies could he reduced must be compatible with national security was also admitted from the first by the United States Government, and was twice mentioned in its replies to the refusal of France to join the conference. in the earliest stages of the conference the American delegation declared itself guided by a desire to take up and determine on their merits, in a spirit of mutual accommodation, the respective technical uaval problems, each having regard to the needs of the others. It was tot until Admiral Jones introduced the question of parity into the discussions that the American delegation evolved the theory that contingencies in respect of commerce-raiding in time of war must not be allowed to influence preparations in time of peace.” —A. and N.Z.