SAFETY OF PACIFIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 999, 16 June 1930, Page 1

SAFETY OF PACIFIC

NAVAL CONFERENCE’S EFFECT DELEGATE RETURNS As far as the nations of the , Pacific are concerned, the Pact signed in London recently by the Naval Disarmament Conterence is • a good one. This is the opinion of the Hon. J. E. Fenton, Minister of Trade and Commerce, who is returning to Australia by the Aorangi. He represented the Commonwealth of Australia at the conference. Mr. Fenton did not think that there would be anything to trouble the nations of the Pacific before 1935. and by that time he was hopeful that more certain efforts would have been made to bring about definite world peace. Talking of the Naval Canference, he said that the Powers did as well as they possibly could in the circumstances. If France embarked on a big building programme, however, which he hoaefl she wouM not do, it would force Great Britain to build cruisers against her. This was the reason for the safe-guarding clause being inserted in the treaty. The decision of the conference meant that the day of the battleship was gone, and with it an enormous saving of money. Mr. Fenton thought that there was a pronounced desire among all nations for naval reduction and peace. Personally, he rejoices in the fact that the Anglo-Saxon peoples have come closer together. While the Pact is in operation, Great Britain does not need to go on building:. The agreement, as it stands at present between Great Britain, Japan, and the United States, affects 650 million people, and the arrangements between the five Powers affects more than two-thirds of the population of the world. This applied to the holiday in building battleships, the humanising of submarine warfare and the classification Of aircraft carriers. The benefits of the conference would be felt in Australia, as they would undqubtedly bring about substantial economies. He was pleased that the two naval training colleges :in Australia were to be co-ordinated on a more modest scale.