Tokyo, Feb. 7.
Pending the receipt of the official report of Colonel Stimson's statement at the Naval Conference, officials are somewhat reticent about commenting on it.
'Naval circles, however, appear to' consider that the suggestion to effect a balance in capital ships 981 instead of by 1942 will be difficult to carry out owing to the fact that the building programmes since the Washington Conference have been based on a prospective balance in 1942, The change in dates in their opinion will require considerable readjustments.
Regarding the proposal that Britain, 'America and Japan should serap 6.3 and I ships respect ively, naval circles point out that although on paper this appears favourable to Japan, the American ships proposed for' scrapping are, armed with 12 in. guns whereas the British ships are armed with 13.5 guns and the Japanese ship 14 in, guns. Moreover, they say, if the Kongo is scrapped it would upset the balance of the Japanese fleet which is based on four ships of the Kongo class as an integral unit, The general re-action of nav: circles, therefore, appears to be not very favourable to Colonel Stimson's proposal The Foreign Office, while admitting the receipt last evening of the proposals which Senator Reed, a member of the American delegation, delivered to Mr. Wakatsuki on details of' the proposals. understood, however, that the proposals are drastic and far-reaching and cover every category of ship and it is believed that in their present form they are unacceptable to Japan though: they represent! some concessions on America's part from the position taken up conversations between the Amei can and Japanese delegates in Washington in December, The proposals have been submitted to Tokyo without comment by the Japanese delegation and the delegation has not asked for instructions, It is understood, however, that the questions involved fare of -such importance that they exceed the delegation's powers and that the deliberation of the whole Government upon them will be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.