PAVEMENT TO PEACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 947, 14 April 1930, Page 9

PAVEMENT TO PEACE

FLEET PACT WELCOMED BY CRITICS FRICTION NOW REMOVED British Official Wireless Reed. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Sunday. The results of the Naval Conference, on which Mr. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, made a detailed statement, are the subject <pf leading articles in the newspapers this morning. “The Times” remarks that it is probable these results would loom larger today if they had not been discounted ter some time as a certain achievement obscured by the effort to add to them long after all hope of doing so had vanished in the world. “The Powers concerned have come to an agreement as to the number and type of warships of all kinds they will build during the next live years,” the paper says, “and the programmes upon which they have agreed are very much smaller than anything contemplated at Washington or even at Geneva three years ago. They have thus, as between themselves, extended and completed the work of the Washington Conference and abolished competition in naval armaments. The saving effected, however, Important as it is for every nation, in the economic circumstances of the present day is not the main benelit which may be expected to result from the agreement. MORE REDUCTIONS LATER “With the elimination of competitive naval construction there will also disappear a prolific source of mutual suspicion, misunderstanding and friction, and the -way will be paved for further progressive reductions at future conferences.” Regretting that France and Italy are not in agreement, “The Times” says theoretically it would be possible for either nation so to increase her construction as to make it impossible for three Powers which have entered into agreement to keep within its limits, but in actual practice there is very little likelihood that this "will ever arise.

An outbreak of shipbuilding zeal in France and Italy such as w r ould be required to modify the contemplated British, American and Japanese programmes would have been less improbable if a three-Power agreement had been concluded without every effort being made to bring them into it. That is true justification for the long-drawn negotiations of the latter days of the Conference. The Conservative “Daily Telegraph” says: “Among ourselves there is virtual unanimity in welcoming the substantial achievement of the threePower treaty, and there is general agreement, not less heartfelt if not so openly expressed, in all quarters on the point that we ought all to be thankful for the escape from those grave complications with -which the country was threatened while the ‘political discussions* of the past few weeks -were in progress.** “DANGEROUS ALLIANCE”

The “Daily Telegraph’* expresses satisfaction that a dangerous alliance ■with the notion of purchasing a reduction of France's programme with new British commitments in the Mediterranean is finally disposed of and hopes the memory of its collapse will tell against the revival of it in another form in future discussions at Geneva. The Liberal “Daily Chronicle” declares that the three-Power agreement is above all a personal triumph for Mr. MacDonald. It is not only better than nothing, but is a very genuine benelit and n far-reaching achievement. It marks a definite point in the process of disentangling ourselves from Europe, and puts the relations of the three leading naval Powers on a sens ible and enduring basis.

SCRAPPING BIG SHIPS

WASH-UP OF CONFERENCE

British Official Wireless

Reed. 12.10 p.m. RUGBY, Sunday. A communique issued yesterday evening states: “Tlie first committee of the naval conference met at Saint James’s Palace in the afternoon to consider certain items of business still outstanding.

The fourth report of the committee or experts dealing with the rules for the disposal of vessels of war was unanimously adopted. The three powers concerned agreed to a definition of the characteristics of the vessels of the destroyer class. The rules for replacement drawn up by a special committee of experts were also considered and, with certain amendments, unanimously adopted. A drtift to implement the agreement reached regarding capital ships was unanimously adopted. The report of the special committee appointed to define the term “aircraft carrier’’ was unanimously adopted subject to certain important modifications.

Under the battleship scrapping agreement the United States will scrap the Florida and the Utah within two years of its ratification.

The British Empire will scrap the Marlborough, Emperor of India, Benbow and Tiger, two within two years and the other two within two and a half years. The following battleships are to be retained for training purposes only: United States, Arkansas; British Empire, Iron Duke; Japan, Hiysi.