EQUALITY DEMANDED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 81, 27 June 1927, Page 9

EQUALITY DEMANDED

AMERICA AND BRITAIN By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright WASHINGTON, Saturday. The refusal of Mr. Hugh Gibson, head of the American delegation to the Naval Conference at Geneva, to agree to the British proposals or to a revision of the Washington Arms Treaty is supported by the State Department. There is no intention here of urging Mr. Gibson to accept the proposals. It is stated that in any agreement which may be reached at Geneva the nited States will accept nothing less than a parity with Britain in every class of naval vessel. An official of the State Department emphasised this fact, because of the publication abroad of articles signed “Admiral 8.,” which purport to give reasons why Britain should return to her one-time supremacy at sea. Mr. Gibson communicated the question to Washington at the request of the British delegation. He will be told there is no change in his instructions to limit the agenda to the discussion of auxiliary ships as provided for in Mr. Coolidge’s invitation to the conference. There is extreme displeasure In Government circles about unofficial British statements to the effect that Britain must have “considerable naval supremacy,” and about the tendency of the official British proposals to support that claim to superiority.—A and N.Z.-Sun.