New Britain herald., 1929-08-24
F|VE-P0WER NAVAL.
 PACT IS PROBABLE
Washington Feels An6lo-Ameri- can Parity Is But One Step

Washington, Aug. 24-EVery year this country seems to have more and more foreign affairs. The first few months of the Hoover admin stration have found enough of them on the griddle to call for frequent conferences betweeen President Hoover and Secretary of State Stim- son.
 But as far as your correspond ent can learn, we have very Little to worry about Insofar as the international situation is con- cerned Uncle Sam hasn't been getting his feet wet
 Negotiations with England over disarmament. carried on by Pre- mier Ramsay MacDonald President Hoover Secretary Stimson and Am bassador Dawes ever since Dawes reached London, appear to be pro- gressing favorably. Perhaps owing to the firm policy of secrecy main tained by both governments, avail able reports of their progress have alternated between hot and cold, But lately these reports have been all to the good and there is every reason to believe that the announc- ed determination of both Hoover and Macdonald to reduce arma- ments is going to bear fruit with out any undue hitches or unneceS- sary proerastination.
 Parity Seems Closer
 The present prospect is that there will be further reduction in size and in numbers of capital ships or first line battleships and that thv cruiser fleets of the United States and England will be brought nearer to parity. We have already halted our cruiser program and it appears England will reduce hers and that she will not plan on complete re placement as her existing cruisers reach the age limit.
 The state department has had nothing to say about the extent 70 which France, Japan and Italy are being kept advised of the progress of negotiations, but it is assumed that they are let in on any concrete developments. For there is now some talk of a formal disarmament conference, as early as December of the five naval powers participa- tory to the Washington arms con- ference. whose next scheduled con- ference was for 1881. This confer ence probably would be held 'n I L1 rl, la. discussed in advanced if Macdonald adheres 10 his reported intention 0f visiting Hoover here in October.
 Our government is keeping well out of the reparations WTangle cau5. ed by British Chancellor of the EIX- chequer Philip Snowden's demand for a readjustment of reparatioae payments as provided in the Young plan. It isn't our show and it would be embarrassing if We had tO take sides between the British and the other powers involved Our official attitude is that separations are a purely European problem, though the Allied nations link them with debt payments. Nevertheless First Secretary Edmund (. Wilson of our embassy in Paris has been acting as unofficial observer at The Hague and has kept the state department thoroughly informed.
 The French debt issue is settled for the present by the ratification Of the Mellon Berenger agreement though 1t seems bound again to raise It's head. Payments have he"u made since the debt wa" funded .,l the sum of four billion dollars Thanks 10 ratification. the French did not have to pay a separate s400 G00,0O0 owed for war stocks which would otherwise have come due on August l. but is now in cluded in the four billions Tue debt is 10 be paid in 62 annull installments, with no interest until 1880, one per cent interest for the next 10 years, two per cent for the