Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-21
EXPERTS TOSTUDY
THREE PROPOSALS
At NAVAL PAR[EY
Technical Committee Form
ed to Examine Plans and
Agree on Status.
SCRAPPING OF TREATY
PROPOSED BY BRITISH
Basis for Discussion Seen in Jap
anese Project-views Wide
ly Divergent,

BY the Associated Press.
GENEVA. Switzerland. June IL
The executive committee Of the tri
rartite naval conference. under the
presidency Of Hugh S Gibson Of the
United States. decided today 10 con
woke a meeting of the technical eN
perts of Great Britain, the United
States and Japan.
The experts were instructed. first
to exchange views and reach an agree
fnent on the existing status of the
three navies, including building pro
grams, and, second, to begin study of
the three sets of proposals placed be
fore the conference yesterday, with
view to clarification of their real pur'
port.
An official communique was issued
saying the executive committee had
adopted resolution in which it sug-
gested that a technical committee be
formed to exchange agreed stats
tics of the present cruiser, destroyer
and submarine tonnage" of each of the
three powers and of the designed ton
mage of ships of those classes COM
prised in the naval programs now au-
thorized, and for which money has
been appropriated; also ANY other in
formation tending TO clarity the pro
posals.''
The resolution concluded with the
hope that in this manner the confer
ence would be in a position to start its
deliberation on IAN agreed basis of
fact"
Would Reopen Treaty.
Further examination by the Amer
leans of the British and Japanese prof
ects shows that the Japanese is with
in closer range of possible fruitful dis
cussion than the British proposals
which are regarded as nothing less
than scrapping the Washington treaty
and as so vague concerning total ton
mage limitations as TO constitute no
real limitation whatever except as to
the size of warships, all of which
would be reduced.
Hence. ii is pointed out, even IL the
size of individual cruisers was les
eened, unlimited competition would
still exist concerning the number OF
cruisers to lie built. 1t is further
pointed out that If some of the ,ieci-
Eions reached at Washington were TO
be revised here, there would be no rea-
son why all should not be reopened,
including the question of naval bases,
such as Singapore and Hawaii, and
the problem of American fortifications
in the Far East.
The Japanese project is said TO
possess the fundamental advantage OF
adhering TO the Washington decisions,
but also is declared to possess the
dangerous provision of preventing the
replacement OF cruisers over is years
of age. This virtually means that the
United States would only have the
right to replace her existing 10 1900
ton cruisers of the Omaha class and
the eight new 10.000-ton cruisers which
are building or contracted for.
Disadvantage to L. s. Seen.
This would limit the American
cruiser strength to total of 10000
tons. as against an estimated 125,000
tons for Japan and would be far from
applving the 5-5--3 ratio to Japan.
Another vital provision of the Japa-
nese project is that all ships under
roo tons are absolutely excluded from
all limitations This would imply, say
experts, that Japan could build an un-
limited number of submarines slightly
under zoo tons, and that these, opef-
ating in the islands of the Pacific,
auch as the Carolines, over which
Japan has mandate, could oner
formidable resistance to the advance
of any fleet toward the Far East.
Az proof of this contention, it is
rointed out that during the war Ger
many utilized a number of submarines
under 700 tons, which succeeded in
crossing the Atlantic.
In general the delegates here rep
resentiug the political viewpoint re-
fuse at the present time 10 admit the
existence of impossible barriers to
successful agreement among the
limited states, Great Britain and
Japan. but the technical experts are
inclined TO see so wide a divergence
of views that the possibility OF an
agreement with great concessions Is
distinctly remote.
Considers Conference New.
Japan considers the present naval
conference an entirely new assembly,
and not A mere continuation of the
Washington conference, the naval OK
perts of her delegation made 1t clear
todav after A preliminary study Of the
American and British proposals.
They intimated that they would
insist unon n detailed examination OF
what the various national require.
nen,s in auxiliary craft may be, ="
without the more or less rigid e&ten'
sion of the 5--5-3 ratio to auxilaries
which they construe the American
plan to mean.
They dismiss the British proposal Ia
for Limitation of the size Of capital
ships as out of the question for set
tlement at the present conference,
remarlting that the Washington sig
nafnries are due to revise their con
clusions in this respect in 1871. They
agree however. that much useful
discussion Of limitation in size may he
held here without the adoption Of
hard and fast decisions.
Free TO Negotiate.
Admiral Niscount Saito head of the
delegation, has free hand to nego'
tlate, the experts made it known, and
is not bound 20 refer to Toxic con
tinually for fresh instructions.
They believes the study of the
British and American proposals viii
take considerable time, 8 many points
are not exactly clear tn them. They
profess not TO have been surprised
by tn British proposals, but thought
The American plan would stick ever
more closely to the principles adopted
IN 1922 al Washington.
PLEASED AT JAPAN'S OFFER.