MACDONALD AT GENEVA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 757, 2 September 1929, Page 9

MACDONALD AT GENEVA

DELEGATE TO LEAGUE ASSEMBLY EMPIRE AND OPTIONAL CLAUSE /inCraSM and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 9 a.m. GENEVA. Sunday. The British Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, has arrived here to attend the League of Nations Assembly, and is interviewing the Dominion delegates. Interviewed at Paris on his way here. Mr. MacDonald said his Government had taken the greatest pains to secure the signatures of the Governments of all the Dominions to the optional clause of the new statute of The Hague International Court of Arbitration. He hoped that when the Empire delegation met at Geneva he would find the position clear. Mr. MacDonald declined to discuss his conversation with the United States Ambassador, General C. G. Dawes, beyond remarking that if “a chicken were not hatched” he would be the most surprised man living. Interviewed on his arrival here. Mr. Arthur Henderson, the British Foreign Secretary, said his Government intended to make another effort in the direction of world disarmament. It would begin with an early attempt to secure the adoption of the principle of cumpolsory arbitration. Alluding the conversations between Mr. MacDonald and General Dawes, Mr. Henderson said that whether or no they had reached results which would enable Mr. MacDonald to make a bold, clear statement before the Assembly remained to be seen. However, if the negotiations succeeded, and he believed they would, a flvePower conference could be held. Then if the decisions of that conference could be realised, they could be passed on to the League. Asked if he would speak on the position of the disarmament question at Geneva. Mr. MacDonald said it depended upon how far the matter had advanced. He added that as a result of preliminary conversations with the United States Ambassador, the present position was entirely satisfactory. NAVAL DISARMAMENT MACDONALD’S SPEECH KEENLY AWAITED ANGLO-AMERICAN PARLEYS British Official Wireless Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Sunday. The British Prime Minister’s speech at a meeting of the League of Nations Assembly on Tuesday is awaited with interest. It is anticipated that the general theme of the speech will be the subject of disarmament and peace. The Foreign Secretary. Mr. Arthur Henderson, who is already in Geneva, contemplates that a successful conclusion of the present Anglo-American conversations will be the early summoning of five Powers' naval conferences. whose decisions would be passed on to the Preparatory Commission of the League on Disarmament. If events permit of such a course, he believes that it will constitute a more definite way to deal more effectively w'ith a disarmament programme than any' hitherto taken. PARITY IN ALL CLASSES A New York message states: The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says the fundamental principles have already been established, or are likely to be established, in the current naval conversations between Britain and the United States. They are as follow: (1) The basing of a naval disarmament agreement on the Kellogg Pact and the linking of that pledge with a curtailment of naval strength. (2) The maintenance of parity between Britain and the United States in all classes of warships. (3) Actual reductions of armaments and not merely an “upward limitation.” (4) The reduction of naval armaments gradually over a term of years by failing to replace warships which reach the age limit, by failing to continue w'ork on vessels actually under construction and by not carrying out parts at least of the building programmes appropriated for or authorised. (5) The lengthening of the age limit in wrhich naval vessels may not be replaced by new tonnage. (6) Probably the fixing of a gross tonnage limitation of destroyer* and submarines, leaving it discretionary with the signatory Powers to bui'.d vessels within each class, provided that the gross tonnage fixed for each class be not exceeded. (7) Applying the “yardstick” to cruisers only. <8) Considering all cruisers as in one category, but perhaps differentiating in applying the “yardstick” between cruisers capable of first line offensive warfare and small cruisers chiefly useful for policing the seas. According to the present arrangements for the projected visit of the British Prime Minister to the United States of America, he will leave England on September 28, arriving at Washington on October 4. It is understood that Mr. MacDonald will spend six days in the Federal capital. For the first three days he will stay at the British Embassy, and for the remainder of the time, on the invitation of President Hoover, at the White House.