1 MARCH 1930, Page 2

The Naval Conference The prolonged French crisis means more delay

for the Naval Conference. On Wednesday the Conference had to decide whether to have a few more days' holiday in the hope that a new French Ministry would then be able to send representatives to London, or whether to carry on without the French delegation, or whether to reduce the dimensions of the Conference at once to a discussion between Great Britain, the United States and Japan; Italy being immobilized as unable to shape any course in the absence of France. The acceptance of the first of these three possible choices proved how little justification there was for the reports early in the week that the Con- ference had for practical purposes collapsed and that nothing remained but to wind up its affairs.