POWERS’ NAVAL PARLEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 836, 3 December 1929, Page 9

POWERS’ NAVAL PARLEY

BRITISH DELEGATES NAMED

FOUR CABINET MEMBERS British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Monday. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDouald, announced in the House of Commons that the British delegates to the London naval conference, which will open on January 21, would be himself, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr, Arthur Henderson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, and the Secretary for India, Mr. Wedgwood Benn. The British Government had communicated with the Governments of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State, and the Government of India, who had been invited to nominate delegates. He was not yet in a position to make a statement as to the names of their delegates, nor give the names of the naval advisers who would assist in technical matters, but these would include the chief and the deputy-chiet of the naval staff. He added that the King had given permission for the use of the Royal Gallery at the Palace of Westminster for the opening of the primary meeting, and of St. James's Palace for Ihe subsequent meetings of the conference. Questioned regarding the agenda, the Prime Minister said a subject of the agenda would be how best the five Powers represented at the conference could agree on reduction and limitation of war-vessels, on a basis of mutually accepted strength. The question of the procedure to be adopted at the conference was a matter for discussion between the Governments of the countries concerned, and for decision by the conference itself. A message from Ottawa says the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. W. L. MacKenzie King, said the Dominion would be represented at the conference, but the representative was not named.