NAVAL PACT

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1930, Page 2

NAVAL PACT

PEACE IN THE PACIFIC,

AUSTRALIAN DELEGATE’S VIE'Wg

AUCKLAND, Jane 16

“Although one can never say for certain, it appears to me that there should he nothing to trouble us in the Pacific before 19.%,” said the Hon J. E. Fenton, Australian Minister for Trade and Commerce, w’po is return,in© to Sydney by the Aorangi after representing Australia at the Naval Disarmament Conference in London. “I am hopeful that before that year serious efforts will be made to 'bring about world peace which will bo more certain than ever.” he added.

Mr Fenton, who attached the signature of Australia to the Three-Pow-er Naval Pact, said lie thought the 'Powers did as, well as they possibly could under the. circumstances. The Pact- was a goc-d one so far as the nations of the Pacific were concerned. If, however, France went in for a big building programme, as he hoped she would not do. Great Britain would he compelled to build against her. That wa s the reason why the safeguarding clause was inserted in the treaty. “As a result of the decisions of this conference and that of the Washington Disarmament Coherence, it is certain that the day of the battleship has gone,” Mr Fenton said. “This will moan enormous savings. From what I could gather at the conference there is a pronounced desire among all nations for naval reduction and peace. I am one' of those who rejoice in the fact that the AngloSaxon peoples have come closer together. We do not need to go on building while the Pact operates. One of the most hopeful signs of the conference, apart from bringing the nations together, was the. fact that agreement' as it stands between Great Britain and the United States, and Japan, affects 650,000,000 people. The arrangement between the Five Powers affects over two-thirds of the total

population of the world. That applies to the agreement regarding a. holiday in 'battleship building, the humanising of submarine warfare, and the classification of aircraft carriers.” Air Fenton said Australia would undoubtedly feel the benefit of the conference decisions in the way of substantial economies.