News of the Week
The Naval Conference ALL goes well with the plans for the Naval Conference in London next January. America, of course, accepted the invitation " by return of post," and since then France, Italy, and Japan have also accepted. The French and Italian replies, without formally making reservations, refer to the well-known policies of the two countries. In the preliminary conversations before the Conference the objections thus hinted will, of course, be developed. The nature of the French objections may be guessed from what has been said by M. Dumesnil, a former Minister of Marine. " Not for one moment "—we. quote from the Times —" could we agree to the abolition -of .stibmarines or even lose- our liberty to construct as many as we deem to be .necessary for our defence. For us the submarine is not an instrument of offensive warfare." It also :seems that :France .may , want to make any Naval agreement strictly dependent upon an all-round Schein-6 of iclucing armaments. •
