PLANNING PEACE IN PACIFIC

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20510, 31 August 1936, Page 9

PLANNING PEACE IN PACIFIC

END OF CONFERENCE OF INSTITUTE CLOSED IN SPIRIT OF HEAVY GLOOM United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copyright (Received August 30, 6.30 p.ia.) YOSEMITE, August 28. The final session of the Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations ended in a spirit of heavy gloom today, with the delegates seemingly reaching a dead-end in arriving at any effective formula to ensure the peace of the Pacific area. The belated British proposal for a regional security pact had already been held impracticable by the United States. Others developed into a maze of conflicting interests to-day. One the one hand the Japanese insisted that any new Pact must recognise her status quo position on the Asiatic mainland, while the Chinese made as conditions of their approval, the withdrawal of Japan from North China and Manchuria. This discussion promoted Sir Kenneth Wigram to threaten that if a British v. Japanese naval race resulted, it might be necessary to raise the present 5-3 ratio over Japan to 2to 1.

Some optimistic viewpoints were forthcoming, notably from M. Sarraut (France) who said the Nine Power Treaty could yet be made effective by adding sanctions, and Mr Alexander, who appealed to America to drop her isolationism and come into the world system of collective security, as an aid to world peace.