PLENARY SESSION OF CONFERENCE POSTPONED

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19036, 3 April 1930, Page 8

PLENARY SESSION OF CONFERENCE POSTPONED

NAVAL DELEGATES GET REPLY FROM JAPAN. (United Press Assn.—By Klectric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received April 3, 1 p.m.) RUGBY, April 2. The plenary session of the Naval Conference, which was arranged for Friday, has been postponed in order to permit fcf the continuance of the Anglo-French conversations, which have been proceeding for the past few days. A further meeting between Mr Henderson and M. Briand was held this afternoon, and it is understood that the conversations will be resumed to-morrow. Their purpose is to discover, if possible, a formula which, while not extending Britain’s liabilities beyond h-r existing commitments under ihe League Covenant and the Locarno Treaty, would increase France’s sense of security, thereby enabling her to reduce her stated requirements in naval armaments. The Foreign Ministers have had before them several draft formulae, but investigation of the subject is still incomplete, as constant consultations between M. Briand and his colleagues in Paris are involved. Some days will probably elapse before the present conversations are completed. The decision to postpone the plenary session was made at a meeting of the heads of the delegations this afternoon. It w r as preceded by a meeting of the chief delegates of Britain, United States and Japan, at which Mr Wakatsuki handed to his colleagues the reply of the Japanese Government to the proposals, which, as a result of the United States-Japanese discussions, and with full British approval, were forwarded to Tokio some time ago. The communique issued at the close of the full meeting states: “Mr Wakatsuki announced that the Japanese delegation had now received a reply on the compromise proposals. The reply stat.es that the Japanese Government is desirous of co-operating to the full in promoting the Conference’s success, and recommends the acceptance of the proposals with certain reservations, which have still to be discussed in detail. The chairman stated that the head of the American delegation and himself had already had an opportunity of ex pressing their deep appreciation of the spirit and substance of this reply. A comprehensive report of the SecretaryGeneral of the Conference on various questions of method and detail still outstanding was examined.”