BILATERAL NAVAL TREATIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20784, 20 July 1937, Page 7

BILATERAL NAVAL TREATIES

DESIGNED TO LIMIT ARMAMENTS

THREE LEADING POWERS IN AGREEMENT British Official Wireless (Received July 19, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, July 17. The bilateral naval treaties with Germany and Russia, which were signed this morning by Britain, require ratification. It is taken for granted that all the outstanding formalities will soon be completed and that by July 31 the London Naval Treaty and the bilateral treaties will come into force. These two bilateral treaties deal with qualitative arms limitation and the exchange of information, and are based on the provisions in the 1936 treaty, certain deviations having been made from the provisions of that instrument to meet the special requirements of Russia and Germany. The British Government negotiated with the two countries simultaneously and their conclusion is inter-dependent, as Germany’s willingness to sign such an agreement was subject to the signature of a similar Anglo-Soviet qualitative treaty.

Since the Japanese refused to accept a 14-lnch gun calibre limitation for future capital ships, the relevant article in the Londfon Naval Treaty is no longer required, and does not appear in either of the bilaterlal agreements. As Russia is rebuilding her fleet which has been permitted to deteilorate since the war, she considers it necessary to construct certain numbers of cruisers outside the treaty limits. The effect of the agreement will be to subject the Powers to the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1936, to which the British Commonwealth, the United States and France are signatories, requiring new warships to conform with the treaty limits and necessitating the exchange of information about building programmes.