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REDUCTION AND LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS.
Naval Dis arm- ament
•
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 34 (28). Con- clusion 4.)
2. In reply to a request for information as
to the present position in regard to the decision
of the Cabinet on the subject of Disarmament
quoted in the margin, the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs informed his colleagues that,
in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet,
he had instructed Lord Crewe to communicate with
M. Briand in regard to the proposal made by the
French Representative on the Preparatory Commis-
sion of the League of Nations, unofficially and
without authority, in a private conversation
with Admiral Kelly. Lord Crewe had been told
to inform the French Government that although
these proposals would not give us all that we
desired, nevertheless they were recognised to
be a great advance on the previous attitude of
the French Government. and that if the French
Government would put them forward officially we
should support them and that in these circum-
I matted to withdraw our seposition to stances we should undante
to oppost the
French point of view in regard to the exclusion
of Reserves from the limitation of land armaments.
The First Lord of the Admiralty informed
the Cabinet that Admiral Kelly had had another
conversation with the French Naval Representative,
who had informed him that the Ministry of Marine
were not opposed to the proposal, but that he
understood there were political objections.
Sir Austen Chamberlain was not unhopeful,
in these circumstances, of so e response to his
intervention on political grounds. On the occasion
of M. Berthelot's recent visit to London he had
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