America Asks for More

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 894, 11 February 1930, Page 11

America Asks for More

FRESH PLAN ON FLEET PARITY Disunity at Naval Conference FRANK COMMENTS BY CRITICS THE whole battleship question of the five naval Powers is likely to be reopened at the London conference, as; the result of rumoured fresh proposals from America in relation to her fleet parity with Britain. Progress is reported among the delegates, who are continuing conversations and co-operating with the experts. Submarines are being discussed by the conference today. Important developments are predicted this week.

(J nited P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 1 p.m. LONDON, Monday. It is no exaggeration to say that the leakage of the information that America is insisting, in the name of parity, on the right to build a ship the equivalent of the Rodney, has changed the whole atmosphere of the conference compared with last week. The manner in which the proposal was made has even added a feeling of disunity. The American delegation officially refuse either to admit or deny that they ever made the demand, but it is indisputable that the demand was included in Mr. TI. L. Stimson's Note issued last week, but was expunged from the summary issued to the Press.

ments,” he said, “is £900,000,000, of which 60 per cent, is expended by European countries, 20 per cent, by the United States and 20 per cent, by the rest of the world.’* The annual cost of armaments, however, was but a small part of the burden which the nEitions have to bear as a result of this policy of relying upon force for national security. PROVOCATION TO WAR Armaments were a provocation to war, and maintained the war mind. Yet war never settled anything. It was only a game from which both sides rose as the losers. It passed the power of the most imaginative to conceive -what prosperity and happiness could be added to the world if its efforts and resources, now so largely wasted in barbarous and inhuman obsession of war, could be diverted to the advancement of human welfare. The chief Japanese delegate to the Naval Conference, Mr. R. Wakatsuki. spoke to the people of Japan yesterday afternoon by Marconi beam telephony from the Imperial and International Communications Marconi beam station at Dorchester. His speech was relayed throughout Japan by means of the Japanese Broadcasting Company’s stations. In the course of his speech, he said he believed the conference would result in the great task of naval limitation being accomplished, thereby increasing the mutual goodwill and concord among the Powers, and contributing materially to the advancement of the fraternity of mankind. STATEMENT TO COMMONS The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, at the invitation of Mr. Stanley Baldwin, made a short statement in the House of Commons this evening on the progress of the Naval Conference. He said that when the conference met, some important preparatory work had still to be done. The conference had now reached a stage where the delegations were discussing details of their requirements. The British Government had therefore prepared a memorandum indicating the policy which had actuated it in these negotiations. Up till now this document, which had since been discussed with the Dominion delegates at the conference and generally approved by them, was now available as a White Paper. A summary of the memorandum had been issued to the Press as the result of the issue of a communication giving in some details the views advanced by the United States delegation, and he decided not to withhold a statement of the British view until today. He wished to make it quite clear that this memorandum, which indicated the Government’s policy, had not been drawn up in agreement with any other delegation. “PROGRESS ALL ALONG” The Prime Minister added: “At this stage of the proceedings it is difficult for me to give the House any details of the present states of negotiations, but I can say with confidence that progress is being made all along the line.” Mr. MacDonald will preside over tomorrow’s plenary meeting and the British view regarding the submarine question will be given by Mr. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty. A Press Association message says the American spokesman is not prepared to discuss any United States proposals. This was the reply to the week-end rumours that the Government. at Washington wants Britain to scrap the Royal Sovereign before the older Iron Duke class of ship, and also that it wishes to build a battleship of the Rodney type. The latter, it is learned, is a definite proposal, and is likely to reopen the whole battleship question. If America has permission to build a ship of the Rodney type, it will give her a higher preponderance of biggun ships compared with Britain.

It was upon the precis that the hopes of the virtual Anglo-American agreement "were based, whereas the truth now seems to be that the United States, in the name of disarmament, is claiming the right to build the world’s most powerful battleship. American correspondents have not hesitated bluntly to state this fact in dispatches to their journals. They even go so far as to say that Mr. MacDonald’s statement in the Commons today was made With his tongue in his cheek, and suggest that the demand will not give satisfaction to Government supporters, either in Washington or at Westminster. American writers point out that though the big navy heads at Washington create a big noise in the Press, in actual voting strength they are in nowise equal to the economists, who look askance at a proposal to mulct the United States in the immediate expenditure of several millions sterling for a new large battleship in the interests of parity, at a conference ostensibly aiming at the abolishing of naval competition and reducing expenditure. SUMMARY OF PROPOSALS

Mr. H. L. Stimson’s statement, issued on Thursday night, is now understood to be only a summary of the American memorandum, which was communicated to the delegations and which contained other far-reach-ing proposals, especially upon the subject of battleships. This document, together with the British memorandum of proposals, summarised on Friday were closely studied by the delegations during the week-end and are likely to be the subject of many conversations during the next few days. Meanwhile, a further advance Is recorded in the compromise proposals regarding the alternative methods of achieving naval limitations, as a result of the week-end studies by experts, who met again this morning. Tomorrow the general question of submarines will be dealt with in an open plenary session. The “Times” today says that among the suggestions made in the full American memorandum is a proposal that the United States should have the right to build a battleship of the Rodney type,, a 33,900-ton vessel with 16-inch guns, if she consents to scrap four of her older and smaller ships, instead of the three that it would be necessary to scrap to get down to the Washington Treaty figure of 15 battleships. This statement is also reproduced in the “Daily Telegraph.” Both journals are dubious of the acceptability of such a suggestion. COST OF ARMAMENTS Some striking facts on the burden of armaments were given by Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a wireless talk relayed from London throughout the* United States and Canada last evening. He said the hope of the Naval Conference was to reach an agreement which would increase a feeling of security among nations that would promise the peoples some relief from armament burdens. The magnitude of these burdens was not sufficiently appreciated by those who bore them. “The world expenditure on arma-