29 MARCH 1930, Page 1

News of the Week

THE decision to hold a plenary meeting of the Naval Conference next week fortifies an expectation that there will be some development to report which will be worth discussing. Elsewhere we have examined the situa- tion brought about by the deadlock between France and Italy, and have paid particular attention to the proposal of Signor Grandi that the Conference should be adjourned for six months, and that during that time France and Italy should try to adjust their differences. If anything came of _that proposal Great Britain, the United States,. and Japan- would no doubt complete a Three-Power Agreement in the hope o£. being able to bring reconciled France and Italy into it later. Here we must mention the revived hope_ that some kind of political pact for heightening the French sense o seenrity may -come to the rescue and make a Five-Power Pact possible after all without any adjournment. The new hope is founded partly on reports from Washington that the Administra- tion will do anything within reason to.save the Conference, and partly on a very pointed speech by M. Briarid, who breathed life into what was thought to be a valley of dead bones. . * * -