The Washington herald., 1922-01-14
REVISED TREATY
ON NAVY ISSUES
BEING DRAFTED
Delegations to Pass on
Document With "Am-
biguities" Eliminated.

The naval committee of the arms
conference has laid aside its
troubles until Monday. Meanwhile
governments are being consulted.
There are two propositions that are
halting developments. They are
the fact that the conference is seek
ing a formula that will remove all
questions of ambiguity, as to what
comes. under. the definition of the
statusfquo of the Pacific. The other
deals with rather minor matters.
IL was stated emphaticalIy last
night that suggsstions that there
are .triclraueStiaAs-a and decisions 10
be handled In the treaties are the
most foolish propositions yet made.
Yesterday the committee on naval
affairs. made up of the chief of the
five divisions. met and made prog
ress with the naval treaty. They
passed upon the suggested texts,
and then adjournment was taken to
allow the preparation of a new
copy to be considered by all of the
five delegations.
shantung Leading Issue.
Shantung will have the right of
way until there are decisions on
the smaller propositions. Then, of
course, will come the question of
the possession of the railway which,
IL agreed to, will finish all Of the
outstanding difficulty.
1t can be stated as a fact that
the naval treaty as originally
agreed to will not radically be
amended. There will be an agree
ment that nations adhering to the
treaty shall have the right to con-
vert certain Of their highest ton
mage ships into aircraft carriers.
But in doing this the regulations
of the treaty will be enforced.
Certain of the nations which have
a high allotment will make a whole
lot of money by doing this. Certain
scheduled warships that are to be
scrapped may be saved at a real
substantial saving
But there will be a careful un-
derstanding that no ship ordered
to the scrap heap. and not COM
pletely salvaged by an agreement
for substitution, shall be replaced
in commission. There will be no
loophole allowed through which 1t
will be possible to evade the scrap
order And this goes for the latest
products Of Japanese and other
shipyards.
Naval Treaty Lauded. y
The-~naval treaty as completed
Is one of the greatest steps for
ward ever designed to end war in
the opinion of various delegation
spokesmen. Last night, however.
1t was suggested that there had
been a very evident effort to stress
matters which had not even been
in dispute between the delegations
to make it appear that here was
something uncanny behind the ne
gotiations.
Suggestions that certain delega-
tions had raised the question that
their condolences had been abused
by the publication of points under
discussion resulted In general
amusement in inner conference cir
cles AS a matter Of fact the pub
licity dodge on the present con-
ference has been SO far outworked
that newspaper correspondents who
don't want to accept propaganda
as 4. propaganda, have to turn
sharply to the right, and keep. go
ing when they fnd the various
delegation spokesmen heading to-
ward them under full sail.
There will be no plenary sessions
for some days to come. Anybody's
guess to date is as good as any
ones else. But it looked last night
as though by Monday night the a.
nal dates for the conference would
be available.