24 AUGUST 1929, Page 1

This Memorandum was carefully drafted in such vague terms that

discussion of its meaning was made inevitable, and the Conference was thus designedly prolonged. Mr. Snowden submitted the proposals to a Committee of Italian, French, Belgian, Japanese, and British experts, who were asked to evaluate them. Some of the Com- mittee's time was wasted by ignorance of the fact that the British experts had discovered an inaccuracy in the cal- culations submitted. In the meantime there was much argument at cross purposes. The Times correspondent says that the majority of experts valued the proposals in the Memorandum as satisfying about 40 per cent. of Mr. Snowden's claim to 12,400,000 a year, but that the British estimate was lower. Of course the source cf money has to be considered. Great Britain could not take money that was merely passed on from the small countries.