GREATER NAVY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 843, 11 December 1929, Page 9

GREATER NAVY

FRANCE INCREASES HER ESTIMATES ITALY’S CLAIM TO PARITY Times Cable. LONDON, Tuesday. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says the memorandum accompanying the French naval estimates for 1930. which total £21,464,000, ail increase of £1,584,000 compared with last year, anticipates the failure of the Five Powers Naval Conference if Britain and the United States attempt to impose their own wishes on the other Powers, whose needs must be studied independently of any Anglo-American agreement. Another stumbling block may be Italy’s claim to parity with France. It is stated that if Italy persists in its claim the success of the conference will be endangered. France’s own requirements, which are unofficially estimated at a figure approaching 800,000 tons, will be distributed as the Government, chooses among the various classes of ships. If this tonnage is conceded France may be content to leave the question of parity open, in the belief that Italy will not build up to her level. THIS NEW DIPLOMACY BEST METHODS OF APPROACH GENERAL DAWES’S OPINION Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Tuesday. Speaking at a dinner in London last night, the United States Ambassador, General C. G. Dawes, said the coming naval conference would meet in a period of new diplomacy and with recognition of the value of its methods. The conference would meet after perhaps as thorough a preliminary consideration of the best methods of approach to its problems, as had ever been had in similar gatherings.