French Explanation: Armout red Cruisers Question; Great Britai Anxiety to Secure an Understanding: The New York Amer rican's" Disclosure The-"New York American" prints the text of a letter, with a full assurance of its authenticity, addressed by the French For: Ministry to French Ambassadors the chief capitals of the world.
This is the letter, the publication of which led to the French Govern ment ublering the expulsion of 31 Harold Bos he Hearst ngeney in Paris.
The letter ix dated August 3, 1928, and is wtdressed "from the Department of Political and Con:- mercial Affuirs at the French Foreign Office, {[t opens with a ference to u despateh of March and deals with British action with reference tu "the naval which for "The exclusion of small cruisers from all limitation seemed to us to be the only solution of the problem in hand between England and: the United States raised by the sistence of the British Admiralty in placing cruisers in two categories. As you know, in fact, at the Ti partite Naval Conference, while agreement between England and America was nearly reached so far fas concerned special limitation of larger cruisers, by the same token the demands of England in so far as concerned the characteristics of the total tonnage of smaller cruisers provoked a rupture of Anglo-American technical conversations, and the definite break-up of the conference.
"The principal reason was that the maximum calibre of six inches demanded by the British Admiralty for the armament of smaller cruis The British 4 great desire to bring thin ubout, and their insistence im this respect has increased ever since. Natu the British Government could. but expect favourable response from us since the difficult discussions the Inst session of the Commission only strengthened our apprehension of the dangers of meeting again without a preliminary Detween the it permit Reading of the Convention for A\ Limitation.
"Technical eonversutions under~ taken by the French and British naval experts on the basly of the proposition of Sir Austen Cham-Berlain aforementioned resulted in a new British proposiers was also the calibre authorized in the Washington treaty for com-ships transformed into y cruisers. It would follow, hen, that even though the United States did possess the same nut her of smaller cruisers as England the strength of the British fleet aw to the number of ships of this type could be considerably increased soon og hostilities opened, due to the considerable number. of auxiliary cruisers) Great Britain possesses in her commercial feet, and which the United States does not, "But in conversation with Puul-Boncour during the session of the League of Nations last June, it Austen Chamberlain clearly impossibility for po any system sane time
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.