DAY OF FEVERISH ANXIETY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18518, 15 March 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

DAY OF FEVERISH ANXIETY.

London Conference Outlook conditions still critical. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 14, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 13. After a day of feverish activity among the heads of the Naval Conference delegations, the conditions of the Conference to-night may be described as unchanged and still critical. Mr Macdonald had such a long series of interviews, that he was unable to attend the House of Commons, not even for the censure debate. Italy’s Concession. The “Daily Herald” understands that Italy is willing to sign immediately a treaty of arbitration and conciliation with France, and even modify her parity claim for the sake of a general reduction. The “Daily Herald” says in conclusion: “We await the French response.” The French View. The French press to-night blames everyone but France for the crisis. “Le Temps” says the responsibility rests with those refusing to give every nation a guarantee of real security. “La Liberte” declares that the AngloAmerican attitude toward security is the negation of all peace pacts. After this Locarno will be enfeebled, and the League of Nations become a mere castle in the air. England and Mr Ramsay Macdonald no longer speaks on the entente cordiale. It is now everyone for himself, and this within three months of our troops retirement from Mayence, under the Young Plan, giving Germany liberty. The only thing now is to defend ourselves by other means than those which the Englishspeaking- people have rejected. Who now dare talk of disarmament.

DESPERATE EFFORTS. SAVING THE CONFERENCE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, March 13. Justification for the belief that desperate efforts are being made to save the conference rests in the sudden change in the day’s plans. Mr Macdonald will have separate interviews with Signor Grandi and M. Briand, instead of meeting the heads of the delegations. M. Briand’s plea yesterday that Italy should be pressed to come out in the open rather disturbed the meeting of the Big Three. There was also the belated lament that Italy and France had not been brought together before the conference to find a formula for Mediterranean balance.

High-placed officials decline to accept the position as hopeless. It is now suggested that there might be a Five Power Agreement embodying the capital ship holiday. The conference might also agree on a basis for computing global and categorical tonnages on which the 1927 Geneva Conference crashed. Facing Big Difficulties. Determined efforts have been made to-day to overcome the difficulties which had brought the Naval Conference to an apparent impasse. These efforts have been mainly in the course of private conversations which Mr Macdonald has had at 10 Downing Street, with each of the other chief delegates in turn. He saw Mr Wakatsuki this morning and Mr Stimson tonight, but particular interest attaches to the conversations he had this afternoon, first with Signor Grandi and afterwards with M. Briand, w'ho remained for nearly two hours. The effect of these conversations is authoritatively described as encouraging. Difficulties still exist and are considerable, but the deadlock is by no means complete.

In addition to the private conversations already mentioned, Mr Stimson and M. Briand had a long talk this morning, while M. Pietri, French Colonial Minister, called on Signor Grandi.

Importance is attached to the impending arrival of the French Prime Minister M. Tardieu, who is expected in London to-morrow night, or Saturday morning. It is generally felt in Conference circles that the crux of the difficulties, which are placing the major issues of the conference in doubt, lies in the Franco-Italian relations. Italy claims parity with France, and France, arguing that she possesses three seaboards, considers that claim unjustified. The high French figures are in the main a reflection of this state of mind, and in turn may affect the naval requirements of Great Britain, with whom the United States desires parity. It therefore, is assumed that the purpose of to-day’s conversations of the Prime Minister with Signor Grandi and M. Briand was to use the situation that a substantial scaling down of the French figures can be effected. The conversations are likely to be continued to-morrow and after M. Tardieu’s arrival, for it is felt that the Conference was to-night further removed from the deadlock than it was this morning. M. Briand, who saw Press representatives this evening, said he was not going back to France until the end of the week. He was still confident that the Conference could come to definite results in the general interests of peace.

Latest French Proposal. Mr J. E. Fenton and Mr T. M. Wilford attended a meeting of the Dominion delegations to discuss the position raised by the French suggestion to transfer the reduction issue to Geneva. The Dominions will probably contend that nothing is likely to be gained by a postponement. There is no gainsaying the fact that

M. Briand is perturbed at the prospect of the isolation of France and the short-circuiting of his policy, which was expressed at Locarno and in the Kellogg Pacts, so he may strive to get something from which the Geneva Commission may make a fresh beginning. It is not uncharitable to suggest that France from the beginning had an eye on Geneva, where she thinks her prestige is more central.