EARLY NAVY TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 860, 2 January 1930, Page 9

EARLY NAVY TALKS

CHIEF DELEGATES GO SOON TO LONDON AMERICA STATES DEMANDS United P. _l.—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, Wednesday. It now appears that all the chief delegates to the Five Powers Naval Conference are likely to arrive early with a view to having preliminary talks with Mr. MacDonald. Besides Mr. Stimson and Mr. Wakatsuki, the respective leaders of the American and Japanese delegations, who will already have conferred with the Prime Minister, Signor Grandi and the rest of the Italian delegates are expected to reach Loudon well ahead of the date of the conference. Spain has not yet approached the British Government with a view to taking part in the proceedings. It is pointed out that Spain will have an opportunity of reviewing the decisions of the conference before the Preparatory Disarmament Commission, of which she is a member, meets at Geneva. The “Daily Telegraph's” naval contributor says he has reason to anticipate that the United States delegates will demand at least '2l 10,000-ton cruisers, being three more than Mr. MacDonald suggested to the American Ambassador, Mr. C. G. Dawes. It is understood that the Navy Department at Washington wanted 23, but was over-ruled. AMERICA’S DEMANDS

If America’s demand were granted the comparative position would be as follows: United States. —21 10,000-ton cruisers, mounting 191 Sin guns. British Empire.—l 3 10,000-ton cruisers and two 8,400-ton cruisers, mounting 116 81n guns. That arrangement would mean, therefore, that the American fleet would have an advantage of 75 Bin guns. On the other hand, Britain would be granted a surplus of small cruisers, displacing about 5,550 tons and carrying 6in guns. It is pointed out that this arrangement would give the United States cruising superiority. Naval authorities say they cannot understand why, as the British Empire possesses 15 18in gun-cruisers, built, or being built, and the United States 13, the parity problem cannot he solved by America building two additional ships and afterward, like Britain, confining her building activities to small cruisers mounting 6in guns. TRADE ROUTES FIRST DANGER OF RAIDERS LONDON, Tuesday. The Marquess of Linlithgow, president of the Navy League, in a New Year message, says the incidents of the Emden and Karlsruhe in the Great War illustrate most clearly the indisputable fact that the cruiser requirements of the British Empire cannot be measured by the naval strength of the other nations. The length and Importance of the Empire’s trade routes and the immense difficulties of bringing action against hostile commerce-raiders must necessarily govern cruiser requirements. FRANCE INSISTS CRUISERS AND PLANES FOR COLONY PROTECTION PARIS, Wednesday. The Minister of Marine, M. Leygues, announced at a meeting of the Cabinet that new separate squadrons have been organised to be stationed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, off the west coast of Africa and in West Indian waters. A flying squadron, consisting of three new cruisers of the Duquesne type also had been created. This announcement on the eve of the London conference is believed to indicate that France insists upon these ships as being necessary for the protection of her colonies and that they cannot be considered as part of the quota allotted to her if parity with Italy is demanded.