First Lord of the Admiralty Announces Reduction in Number of Cruisers Wanted Scathing Comment London, Jan. 10.
The attitude of the Admiralty at] the forthcoming Naval Conference was outlined by Mr. A.V. Alexander, the First Lord of the; Admiralty, in a speech at Sheffield to-day.
He pointed out that the British policy of a one-Power standard was Simply expressed at the Washington Conference in the matter of battleships, as parity with the greatest! other naval Power, but that the matter of cruisers was not £0
After the Washington Conference, the went on, the Admiralty fixed the number of cruisers at seventy, Based on the needs for the defence of Britain's vital communications all over the world, The First Lord declared: "We: stood for that number at Geneva Dut a new situation has arisen through the Kellogg Pact outlawing war by all the major Naval Powers. With such powerful support for: pence, we are justified in anticipating a period in which armed con. fiots need not be expected. The Board of the Admiralty is therefore prepared to agree to fifty cruisers as the minimum for the needs of the Empire until the next date for @ conference and revision, which is expected to be near 1936, hoping that a further agreement in. 1936 will confirm and extend the present agreement, But if, unhappily, the international horizon 4n the future boce uneloud-
<4, the Board of the have to review the position."
Mr, Alexander concluded stating that the proposed reduction would depend on an agreement at the forthcoming Naval Conference fon the adequate limitation of the} naval strengths of other Powers, Mr, Alexander said that Britain would like to see capital ships less. expensive to build and maintain shan the battleship involved in the Aonnage Inid down at Washington, "The extent to which a si ini reduction in destroyers may be achieved," he went on, "depends upon the measure of success regarding the reduction of submarines.
is difficult to persuade the other Powers to consent to the complete abolition of the submarine, but it eight to be possible to have some measure of reductie Jan. 11.
"An enrively futile and meaning-Jess how the "Daily Telegraph" characterises the Government's conditional proposal to reduce British cruiser strength.
The principal delegates will be Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the Premier; Mr. Arthur Henderson, the Foreign Secretary; Captain Wedgwood Benn, the Secretary of State for India; and Mr. A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of Admiralty.
Acting as Foreign Office expert advisers will be Sir Robert Vansittfort, Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs; Mr. Herbert William Malkin, legal adviser of the the American delegation to the Foreign Office; Mr. Craigie, head of the American Department of and the Hon. A.G.M. Cadogan, adviser on affairs of the League of Nations.
The Admiralty expert advisers will Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Madden, First Sea Lord and Chief the "Naval Staff; Vice-Admiral [Sir William Fisher, Deputy Chief] jof the Naval Staff; Vice-Admi Roger Backhouse, third Sea Lord; four officers of the Plans Division lof the Admiralty; and Vice-Admiral Anderson and Mr. Alex Flint, prinfeipal Assistant Secretary of the Admiralty.
The Dominions Office will be represented by Sir Harry Batterbee, the Assistant Secretary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.