NAVAL STRENGTH

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 7

NAVAL STRENGTH

GENEVA VIEWS DIVERGENT JAPAN SEEKS NEW TREATY OPPOSITION FROM BRITAIN CONFERENCE OF ALL ASKED STANDSTILL IN MEANTIME British Wireless. Rugby, May 25. Divergent views were expressed in the general commission of the Disarmament Conference when naval disarmament was considered to-day. Signor Massigli (Italy) advocated qualitative disarmament and a reduction in the size of capital ships and cruisers to 25,000 tons and 8000 tons respectively. The London Treaty, he said, should be revised, and there should be a treaty for all. Admiral Sato (Japan) proposed that a new naval agreement should replace the Washington and London Naval Treaties and be included in the future disarmament convention.

He emphasised that if the two existing treaties were fully applied they would entail both qualitative and quantitative increases, which was not in conformity with the Disarmament Conference’s aim.

Captain R. A. Eden, British Foreign Under-Secretary, pointed out that Britain had not built up to the tonnage allowed by the London Naval Treaty. As a result of the Washington Treaty 1,250,000 tons of ships had been destroyed and the way prepared for the further reductions made by the London treaty, by which capital ships had been further reduced and the gun calibre limited; five cruisers which Britain had intended to build had been stopped. REDUCTIONS BY BRITAIN. Britain, he said, had reduced her total tonnage by 100,000 tons and asked other countries to act similarly. He considered that the next naval conference, due in 1935, should consist not only of the big naval Powers, but also of all Powers interested in naval matters. He urged a universal conference on the principles adopted by the five naval Powers, that the status quo should be maintained until the next conference, and that negotiations should continue with a view to effecting further important reductions. Urging the rejection of the Japanese plan, Captain Eden said it was not of such a nature as to assist the conference’s work. Senor Madariaga (Spain), advocating the abolition of battleships above 10,000 tons, sarcastically mentioned that the five leading Powers possessed 4,276,000 tons of warships, compared with 940,000 tons for the rest of the world. Mr. Norman Davis (America) expressed full approval of Captain Eden’s remarks and pointed out that the two naval treaties had halted the naval armament race. He expressed the desire that the London Treaty’s framework should be completed by the signature of France and Italy, and he urged the delegates to accept the article in the British plan by which the signatories to the naval treaties would remain bound by the reductions they had imposed.