SUPREME FAILURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 989, 4 June 1930, Page 11

SUPREME FAILURE

CONSERVATIVES VIEW NAVAL CONFERENCE HOSTILE MOTION DEFEATED British Official "Wireless RUGBY, Monday. Speaking on Mr. Stanley Baldwin’s motion in the House of Commons to have appointed a Select Committee to examine the London Naval Treaty, Major J. W. Hills, Conservative member for Ripon, Yorkshire, said Mr. Baldwin’s motion would be regarded as a condemnation of the treaty. If the Sea Lords had failed in their duty or the Government had disregarded their advice a vote of censure should be moved, otherwise, said Major Hills, he preferred to believe the Government had the support of the professional opinion at the Admiralty. (Labour cheers.) Mr. Winston Churchill said the Conservative Party asked that there should be a searching examination of the details of the treaty before the country committed itself irrevocably. It was a treaty of inferiority in form and on paper. Britain ought not to get into a position where any Power, even the most friendly, would have undoubted means of threatening her with starvation. TILT AT CHURCHILL He had no hesitation in saying that the country would have been safer w-ith the five battleships which were to be scrapped under the treaty than with the cruisers which would have to be built. Was that economy? The conference was the supreme failure of all conferences, said Mr. Churchill. The relations between Italy and France had been made definitely worse and the United States, as a result of the treaty, would spend between £100,000,000 and £200,000,000 in the next five years. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, said that in his heart of hearts Mr. Churchill had no real desire for peace. Mr. Baldwin's motion was rejected by 252 votes to 201. THREE CRUISERS BUILDING WASHINGTON, Monday. The Secretary of the United States Navy, Mr. C. F. Adams, announces that work has been quietly started on the three new 10,006-ton cruisers held up by the President, Mr. Hoover, before the Five Powers Naval Conference. The 8-inch gun design settled in the pact has been agreed upon in the construction of these ships. The cruisers will be completed in 1933. It Is understood that changes have been made to provide them with heavier armour on the gun-turrets and generally heavier armaments, without involving a loss of speed.