NAVAL DELEGATES MEET IN LONDON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18971, 21 January 1930, Page 1

NAVAL DELEGATES MEET IN LONDON.

GROUP ASSEMBLE IN THE CABINET ROOM. (United Press Assn.—By Electri® Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received January 21. 10 p.m.) LONDON, January 20. All the naval delegates assembled in the Cabinet Room to discuss the preliminaries. Only the Italians wore silk hats and frock coats. -The others were in lounge suits and same in felt hats.

They were barely seated when the noise of RIOO overhead delayed the commencement of the proceedings for some minutes. - The informal meeting was cordial, and is described as a happy augury of the spirit of the conference. The first real ceremonial will be at Buckingham Palace this afternoon, when all the delegates will be personally presented to his Majesty. When the King opens the Conference to-morrow his speech will be brief. All will remain standing during its delivery, after which his Majesty will retire and the heads of the other delegations will speak in turn. The seating plan will be in the form of a horseshoe table. Reading from left to right, the members will be seated as follows: The United States, Australia, Canada. France, Britain, India, the Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. When the delegates had assembled Mr MacDonald asked them to go into the garden to see the airship RIOO, which was on a test flight, and was at that moment cruising in the neighbourhood of London, and virtually passed overhead. Singapore Base. _ It is clear that Mr MacDonald has intimated to the Dominion representatives that if the Naval Conference lb*es up to his hopes, there will be no need for Singapore Naval Base. It will not be surprising to find Mr J. H. Scullin in full agreement, but New Zealand’s present intention is strongly to press for the completion of the base. Nothing definite can lie known regarding Singapore until considerable progress has been made at St James’s Palace. It is not expected that the other Dominions will enter the controversy. Mr Lloyd George, the Liberal leader, addressing the National Liberal Club, the Naval Conference. He said: “There may be - differences between the parties, there may be differences inside the parties, but all will agree in. wishing well to the conference. The Government might be a minoritv Government, but in this respect it is a national Government and has„the whole nation behind it.”