IN SIGHT

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXVII, Issue 7960, 4 February 1930, Page 2

IN SIGHT

NAVAL DISARMAMENT AGREEMENT ANGLO-FRENCH ATTITUDE PROSPECT OP SOLUTION Australian and N.Z Cable. , RUGBY, Feb. 2. Mr MacDonald’s optimistic statement that the partition dividing the French and British is so thin as to be almost transparent is borne out in French delegation circles. Britain is unlikely to accept the compromise proposal formally, however, until the views of the other delegations at the conference have been defined and until the whole matter has been thrashed out in committee. The so-called first committee has now been turned into a committee of all delegates and is, in effect, the,, conference sitting as a committee in private. The next sufch meeting as at present arranged, takes place on Tuesday.

The newspapers call attention to the significance of the recent announcements regarding reduction in the British naval construction pro-, gramme for 1929-30. It is recUhiied that the naval tonnage which,’ Britain would, in the ordinary coh'nK? have laid down in the current ftnagj cial year, has been reduced py ]y 30,000 tons, or over 5d per cent,’ This is regarded as an IthpffessivA lead to the conference, although some newspapers consider that the cancellations are excessive, particularly aff they have been made without auy effort to use such reductions as a bargain to counter with the other naVal Powers.

The Daily Herald, justifying the latest naval cuts, says the foreign delegates to the conference fully realise the significance of the Government’s revision of the naval programme. The cuts entail a total'saying of £9,000,000. They are of tvyo, kinds, first, the cancellation of .th£ cruisers Surrey and Northumberland/ the preliminary work on which Js filing scrapped: and, secondly, tlm .reduction of the 1'929 programme before any work has begun dr orflbfs placed. ■ • •-■•/it This is not one-sided disarmament.. It is A measure of the Governfnent’a confidence in the outcome of th|' .conference. If the conference s®cdeds the vessels dropped will not jerd required. The Government therefore decided not to begin work yrhich might have to be scrapped later. The change will not entail the discharge of Government dockyard employees. BRITAIN’S GESTURE REDUCTION IN SHIPS AND AIR FORCE Australian and N. 7. Cable. LONDON, Feb. 3. ! The Daily Telegraph follows up its disclosures about the cancellation of orders for the construction of British warships with details of the Government’s pacific intentions in regard to the air force. According to the paper the Royal Air Force estimates also have been made the occasion for a disarmament gesture. Those for the coming year only provide for a fraction of the addition to the force contemplated by the defence standard framed in 1923.