Japan: Large cruisers 1 Small cruisers 1 Submarines 77,900 Destroyers 105,000
The general effect of these statements was that by Febry-14 the requirements of the three battleship nations were jonahly well known, unless some one of them was concealing a surprise to spring upon the Conference, that at this time of writing, a month after the issuance of the original figures, would sibility of Htaching a reservation to what-ver treaty might be arrived at in London to the effect that it would not become effective until the Rodney had been scrapped. The opinion of a number of the Senators was that America should not build another battleship in order to secure parity.
Matters were somewhat complicated by the failure of M. Tardieu's Cabinet to fight off a, what amounted to, vote of lack of confidence on February 17. The action of the French Chamber of Deputies in overthrowing the government in the middle of the Conference was unfavourably commented on even by the French papers. M. Chautemps formed a Cabinet immediately afterwards but this was defeated at the very first session in which it appeared in the Chamber. M. Tardieu formed a new Ministry on March 2, which was able to resume di cussions at the Conference, which had been more or less held up for a period of some fourteen days, Nothing very sensational—"occurred until March 12, when the continuance of the Conference was endangered by a dispute which arose between Italy.and France. The following day Havas, in a statement: issued for the purpose of elucidating the French position summed up the situation a5 completely as' any official statement has done up to the present. France had sought a security psct—a sort.of Mediterranean Locarno—to which both Great Britain and America refused to subscribe. That having failed, France considered herself unable to reduce her means of naval defence below. what she considered the necessary level. Whereupon, Italy immediately demanded ' parity with France but refused to meet Briand's demand for a submission of figures, The crisis thus created a week ago has persisted to date, and there is comparatively little except hope
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.