Reported Proposal by Sir John Simon of Temporary Gentlemen's Agreement Exchange of Information London, Nov. 27.
REVENTION of a naval shipbuilding race by deciding the total tonnage of warships to be built by America, Great Britain and Japan during a certain period after January 1, 1937, was proposed by Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary, during the Anglo-Japanese negotiations here to-day. Mr. T.
Matsudaira and Vice-Admiral I. Yamamoto, chief Japanese delegates, promised to communicate with their government regarding the proposal.
In the new proposal, which is to be a temporary gentlemen's agreement, Sir John suggested that world sea powers should inform each other of the tonnage and types of warships to be built during a definite period, at least five years after January 1, 1937, when the Washington and London naval treaties expire, it is believed.
According to information in authoritative circles here, the British Government will propose to hold the 1935 Naval Disarmament Conference in London some time around June, although authorities of the Government consider that the 1935 conference is useless in view of the present situation of the London negotiations British and American observers here believe that both the French and Italian Governments will refuse the Japanese proposal to join the latter in terminating the Washington Treaty and, as the result, Japan may have to denounce the treaty alone. It is understood that the British Government has already rejected the Japanese proposal
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.