WHOSE MOVE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 9

WHOSE MOVE?

British Government Will Not Call New Conference on Disarmament

A MISTAKEN CONCLUSION British Official hTirelcss Received 11 a.m. RL’GBY, Wednesday. QI ESTIONED in the House of Commons to-day. Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Foreign Secretary, stated that the British Government had no intention of issuing invitations to a new conference on naval armaments. All questions concerning British relations with America, and the naval conditions of the two countries, were under consideration by the Government. He was unable to make any statement until that inquiry was concluded.

Examination of these questions was being diligently prosecuted. As soon as it was concluded, the first step would be to communicate its results to the Governments of the Dominions, and receive and consider their views. In regard to the statement by the British Ambassador at Washington, Sir Esme Howard, regarding further negotiations on naval armaments, Sir Austen said the statement was not made on the instructions of the British Government. Asked whether he was aware that the statement of the Ambassador and the subsequent statement by the Foreign Office had caused misunderstanding to arise in America, Sir Austen said there was no contradiction between the statements. The statement is-

sued by the Foreign Office was a correction of a mistaken inference which was drawn from the statement made by the Ambassador in Washington. Explaining the circumstances in which the statement was made by the Ambassador, Sir Austen Chamberlain said the Ambassador, on being approached by representatives of the Press for his views on the possibility of a renewal of the discussions on the limitation of naval armaments, gave his personal opinions as to the possible course of events. In no part of his statement did he indicate that immediate developments were likely, although erroneous deductions in this sense seemed to have been drawn from his remarks by a certain section of the Press.