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ARMAMENTS.

Reduction of.

(Previous

Reference: Cabinet 16 (28), Con- clusion 6.)

1. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

brought before the Cabinet, as a matter of

urgency, a telegram from the Secretary of State

for Foreign Affairs from Geneva (No.56 L. N., of June 3rd) giving the result of a conversation

Sir Austen Chamberlain had had with M. Briand

on the subject of Naval Disarmament. In this

telegram Sir Austen Chamberlain reported that

the French Council of Ministers was unanimously

of opinion that an agreement must be reached with

us. The basis proposed was an agreement on a

formula which would determine the relative

cruiser strength according to the length of lines of communication. It had been arranged that Sir Austen was to discuss the question fully with M. Boncour, when he would try to get an

agreement on these lines added. The telegram concluded by asking for the observations of Lord Salisbury, Lord Cushendun and the Admiralty at the earliest possible moment.

Lord Cushendun said that after communication with Lord Salisbury, who was in Dorsetshire, he had had a discussion with the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, in the absence of the First Lord, the previous afternoon. As the result of this latter discussion he had sent to the Foreign Secretary the telerem attached as Appendix I to these Minutes.

The First Sea Lord said that the difficulty in discussing the present proposal was to know precisely what the French intended by a fomula based on "length of lines of communication".

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