The daily times., 1921-12-21
BRITISH WANT TO
GIVE PUBLICITY
TO ARMS DEBATE
LORD RIDDELL TALKS
French Have Complained that
a Press Campaign Has Been
Directed Against Them by
the British; However Others
Are Glad the French Pro-
posals Leaked Out.
(By David Lawrence.)
Copyright, 1921, by The Daily

Washington, Dec. 20.-Great Brit
take the conference out of the
meshes of private conversation and
secret debates and force the discus
sion into the open in the hope of
lining up the moral forces of the
world behind her demand that the
submarines be abolished.
The tactics of the British in press
ing for a plenary session at which
the whole question OF submarine uses
might be discussed by Arthur Balfour
present is sequel to another and
much more significant incident in con-
!nection with the French proposal to
build ten battleships.
The French have complained to
members of the American and other
delegations of the press campaign
onducted by the British against them
in the last few days. They insist that
the British broke faith in permitting
the public to know what the French
battleship proposals were and that it
had been agreed that this would be
kept secret as between Mr.. Hughes,
Mr.. Balfour and the other members
of the naval committee of the powers
in conference here.
The question of whether the Brit
iish did or did not break faith hinges
largely upon whether Lord Riddell
| is an official representative of Great
! Britain at this conference or simply
private citizen engaged in newspa-
per work Every day for many weeks
Lord Riddell has received the news
paper correspondents not only OF Eng
land but the United States and other
countries and has discussed with the
utmost abandon all the matters up
before the conference. He has out
lined the British viewpoint, the
French, the American, Chinese and
iJapanese contentious with all the air
of authority that an official spokes-
man need have to impress his audi
ence. The information given out by
Lord Riddell has been for the most
,part authentic. So far as British news
lis concerned, it has conceded with
he moves of the delegation.
The truth is the delegates with the
exception of the French are pleased
that the proposals leaked out for
world opinion has promptly caused
, the French to modify their view
point. Now the British seeing the
!. advantage which more or less open
diplomacy has given them are plan
: ming to press their advantage still
further by an open session OF the
conference Replying upon the senti-
ment of the American people as well
as the prejudice which. exists gener-
ally against the submarine because
of the way the Germans used the
weapon in the last war, the British
will make an attempt to meet the
French demand for certain number
J. of submarines by insisting that al
Submarines be abolished. The Amer.
!, ican delegation favors the retention
!of some submarines. An active pro-
J., paganda by shipbuilding interests
has been carried on both in France
and the United States in favor o1
submarine building. The British be-
lieve they can, however, marsha
!. American opinion behind their OWL
lpublic sentiment against the sub
marine and secure its abolition. Tht
significant thing is that when thu
conference gets into deadlock
1 through the secret sessions, the re
d course of all the delegations is t
f lopen sessions and the press.