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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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