Aug. 9.
The Naval Conference has been postponed sine die. This is very regrettable in view of the hopes that were entertained for its success. As Mr. Hugh Gibson said in his opening speech, disagreement would deal a seri~ lous blow to the efforts which fave being made to limit air and land armaments, He obviously had in mind the probable psychological effect which the fail" jure to reach an agreement on naval armaments would have upon the final work of the Lea-'s Preparatory Committee on Disarmament, and on the Dis-jarmoment Conference itself. In view of the fact that the United States Government summoned the conference and that: both Great Britain and Japan warmly welcomed: the invitation, Jeannot be denied that the present deadlock is regarded as a bitter disappointment.
The American proposal was that there should be no alteration in existing size limits, but that the 6-5-3 basis should be applied to the tonnage of each class of ship. This meant a scrupulous adherence to the Washington ratio in respect of jeruisors, destroyers, and submarines. Under this plan the tonnage apportionable to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.