The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1921-11-19
ACCEPTANCE
0FPROPOSALS
CONDITIONAL
Q t
Great Powers Talk
Nicely Of Hughes
Proposals, Blu t
Strings Tied to Ac-
ceptance

oUl 44AS5O w.
ceptance
washington. Nov. Is. = The
sweeping American proposal Tor re-
duction of naval armaments be-
came the accepted fundamental
policy of the armament conference
today by the unanimous assent OF
the 1--WE great powers.
Second the bold lead Of the
United States, the a r te
spokesnaen of Great Britain, Italy
and France, rose in their places at
today's plenary session Of the con-
ference and one after another de-
cIared the readiness Of their gov
ernments to accept the American
proposal in spirit and in principle
but with the reservation of right
to suggest notifications of detail.
Then the problem Of these de-
tails, which every one realizes may
I yet occupy the prolonged attention
of the conference and involve the
success or failure Of the whole plan,
was referred for preliminary eX-
tension to a committee OF five tech
meal naval advisers, one from each
OF the big five powers. Within this
committee first of al Great Britain
will ask for a further reduction of
the limit proposed on submarine
tonnage. Japan will endeavor to
prove her right to a greater ratio
3 of naval strength than has been
suggested for her, and France and
Italy will request that their naval
questions be considered along with
$ tLose Of the three stronger naval
powers embraced in the American
plan.
Thus the diplomacy Of the Amer
ican delegation has won its first VIC
tory in the conference but still finds
itself confronted with questions of
admitted importance and delicacy
whose solution is requisite to at
tainment of the purposes for which
the nations were called in counsel.
While the technical advisers
wrestle with the ornaments prob
lem and the delegates themselves
continue informal conversations on
dhe American plan, the other big
subject Of the conference, the Far
Eastern situation, will be given its
first formal consid deration at an exc
cutfve meeting tomorrow Of the del
cations of all tn nine interested
nations. Tonight every one of the
delegates was in waiting attitude
toward the Far Eastern questions.
and If any nation had compre-
hensive plan of settlement to pre-
Ssent at the outset it was carefully
concealed.
The lead in accepting the princi-
PIE of the American naval proposal
was taken in today's meeting of the
conference by Great Britain, whose
historic naval supremacy would
eventually give way to an equality
OF strength with the United States,
If the plan became an actually. Ar
thur j. Balfour, head of the Brit
ish delegation, announced the Brit
ish acceptance in speech that stir
red the emotions of delegates and
spectators and started a discussion
in which diplomatic cards were laid
on the table in a manner unprece-
dented in international conferences.
While the hall still echoed with
applause for the speech of the
British statesman, the chief dele
gate Of Japan, Admiral Baron Kato,
was on his feet to pledge the readi-
>ReSs of the island empire Of the
East>S6 proceed with sweeping re-
ductions" in her fleet Senator
Schanzer for Italy and Premier
BRAND for France added in their
{ turn a pledge Of cooperation in the
8 program laid down by the United
States.
Mr.. Balfour alone made specific
mention of some of the modifca-
tions that would be suggested as
the negotiations progress. Reduc-
ticn of the figure set as maxi
mEm of submarine tonnage was
the project or which he indicated
his government would be most in
sistent. but later members Of the
British group elaborated the sug-
gestions they are to put forward
somewhat as follows:
"First-Reduction of the SUBJ
marine tonnage the United States.
Great Britain and Japan would be
allowed to maintain in the propos-
ed limited fleets. The figures in
Secretary Hughes proposal were
10000 tons, each, in submarin s.
for Great Britain and the United
States. and $4,000 tons for Japan.
It was indicated that Great Brit
ain would urge cutting this in half
to $4,000 tons for the two powers
and a similar reduction for Japan.
In addition, the British propose
to limit the size Of submarine units
in, such fasion as to confine them
to defensive operations and make
them unusable oversee.
8 Second - That to protect future
knowledge and skill in capital war
ship construction, each nation re-
tain one capital shipbuilding yard
capable of producing a ship year
and scrap all other warship build
ing for facilities.
Third-That allowances be made
in the American replacement
schedule of light craft. such as
light cruisers and gunboats, not of
particular use in any naval often
nnarationS for the ADEQUATE