LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18538, 8 April 1930, Page 9

LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS.

London Naval Conference. THREE POWER PACT LIKELY. (United Press Association— By Ksotrls Te. ec* *P h—Copt- r J irh t.) RUGBY, April 6. As was anticipated, the London Naval Conference has undergone no change during the week-end. Many of the delegates attended the England v. Scotland football match yesterday afternoon and at its conclusion the Prime Minister motored to Chequers Court, where he spent a quiet day to-day, no important interviews having been arranged. Most of the other delegates spent the day out of London. M. Briand left yesterday afternoon for Paris to consult his Government, and he is not expected to return until Tuesday. Pending his return it is unlikely that any important change in the situation will take place, as the political questions which have been the subject of conversations between France and Britain form the chief obstacle to further advance. No fewer than nine questions are down for answer in the House of Commons to-morrow bearing on the political aspect of the Conference and interpretation of Article 16 of the League Covenant. They display the fear that a formula interpreting Britain’s obligations under the existing Pacts and Covenants might imply a new guarantee to France. It has, however, been repeatedly stated by the Prime Minister that the Government, while willing to define and explain the extent of Britain’s undertakings, is not prepared to increase her commitments.

The “Observer,” which emphasises that if any practical or far-reaching agreement on naval reduction is to be achieved France must be a party to it, says: “It it be found possible to gratify France by re-statement of the existing obligations, whether embodied in the Covenant or in the Locarno Letter to

Germany, and thereby, after all, to induce France to agree to the serious business of naval disarmament, it is clearly the duty of British diplomacy to explore such an avenue. That is the deliberate view of the British delegation.”

Mr Hugh Gibson, American Ambassador to Belgium, and one of the American delegates to the Naval Conference, delivered a radio address to the United States this afternoon. He said that during the past week a definite agreement had been reached between the United States, Great Britain and Japan. It meant that from the fleets of the three Powers nine battleships were to be scrapped without replacement. Under the terms of this arrangement the Japanese battleship fleet would consist of nine battleships, and the reduction of the combined battleship fleets of the three countries would therefore equal in numbers the third largest battleship fleet in the world, under the terms of the Washington Treaty. The United States, Great Britain and Japan were committed to the laying-down of twenty-six battleships between now and 1936, but under the arrangements of last week, not one battleship would be laid down during the next six years. The great achievement of this Conference was that it had arrived at a basis for limiting all kinds of vessels in the three largest fleets. Cruisers, destroyers and submarine tonnage under this limitation would be far below the lowest limit, which was discussed at Geneva in 1927. The results attained so far v/ere beyond reasonable expectations. There was good reason to hope that a FivePower Agreement might be signed before the Conference concluded. If the full measure of ' that agreement could not be had at this session, a Three-Power Agreement could be made on a basis which would welcome as parties to it the other two Powers when their difficulties had been solved.