Saving the Wreck

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 930, 25 March 1930, Page 9

Saving the Wreck

HOPELESS CONFERENCE OUTLOOK Powers’ Naval Gestures CRITICS TIRED AWAITING RESULTS United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Received 10.5 a m. LONDON, Monday. lITE have not begun to salvage the ship, and cannot until *» it becomes a wreck; it lias not officially become a wreck and it is still making progress. There are two meetings on Ihe bridge this morning.” Thus declared the British spokesman in announcing that the British delegation at the Naval Conference had made a survey of the conference, and was receiving a survey by the Americans. The process would then be jointly continued. The experts are still meeting, trying and hoping to reach some sort of a solution.

The French Delegation has returned. ] It has never given any Indication that; it considered the conference had fin-' lshed. M. Briand will probably be in London during the week, the whole of which is likely to be occupied by conversations. A plenary session is unlikely this week. It can only be held first if there is something to do toward success, or secondly if that hope is abandoned. Neither contingency is expected to arise this week. Questioned regarding a three-power pact, the spokesman said if the French delegates had gone, a three-Power pact would have been brought appreciably nearer, but that had not happened. It would not be negotiated in a five-Power conference. The only thing was to wait and see. PROTEST BY CRITICS A British official wireless message says;—- . Newspapers state that the delegations may soon have to decide whether the time has not come to summon a plenary session to review the whole position at the Naval Conference. Such a meeting would enable Britain, as the inviting Power, to move proposals for disarmament, for it is felt that the objects of the conference j have been allowed to drift into the background. “The Times” says; If the proposals for-warded to Japan and America are acceptable, the way would be open to the drawing up of a complete pact, and even at the present stage it is felt that it would be possible to prepare a pact between America and Japan and Great Britain, which would accelerate the scrapping

of tlie battleships agreed on at the i Washington Conference, discontinue the replacement o£ battleships during the next five years, and thus prolong the life of existing ships, define the number of cruisers carrying eightinch guns, and cruisers carrying guns of smaller calibre, limit the tonnage of destroyers, limit the size of the submarines to 2,000 tons, and regulate the use of submarines in wartime. By this time, “The Times” adds, a great deal of good could come from the London Conference, even if a fivePower treaty is not found practicable. GIFTS FROM KING The difficulties confronting the conference were further examined this morning at a meeting between the British and United States delegations, and this evening the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, had a long conversation with the chief Italian delegate, Signor Grandi, at the House of Commons. » The general situation has undergone no appreciable change in the course of the day. The French Minister of Marine, M. Dumesnil, has returned to London and the Colonial Miniser, M. Pietri, is due tomorrow. The date of the return of M. Briand i is not yet announced, but he is expected when Parliamentary duties permit. The King has presented the members of all delegations to the Naval Conference with autographed gramophone record of his speech at the opening of -the conference on January Each record is contained in a Royal blue leather case hearing the Royal coat of arms.