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Biggest point of probable difference: most British editors, powerful Laborite groups and the Admiralty put heaviest pressure on Chairman MacDonald of the conference, last week, to get limitation of capital ships placed first in the conference agenda, whereas Messrs. Hoover and MacDonald were once in harmonious agreement that limitation of cruisers is the prime business of the conference. There were hopeful signs that this "breach" was being successfully closed in secret. Meanwhile two retired admirals, one British, one U. S., openly said what many an admiral on active duty thought.
Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske (U. S. N. retired): "There is not one chance in a hundred of our achieving naval parity with Great Britain!"
Vice Admiral E. A. Taylor (B. R. N., retired): "Often I have heard people who ought to know better state that we accepted the basis of equality at Washington in 1922. We did nothing of the kind. We accepted equality in capital ships only; a very different thing. . . .
"My point is that all this talk of equality as a basis is fundamentally wrong."
Agenda Cyclone. On the seventh day of the Conference came its first down-to-brass-tacks session, when the delegates met to try and agree on their agenda—a term meaning "the things to be attempted, and the order in which to attempt them."
Ensued a three-hour secret session which one delegate later told reporters was "wasted in wind." He said that a French delegate "started a regular cyclone" by wafting across the table at an Italian delegate the zephyr: "Ha! So the egg [Italy] thinks itself more important than the chicken [France]!" Another delegate described the session in two words: "Exhaustive, exhausting!"
The exhaustion of the chief U. S. delegate was such that he went straight to his hotel (the Ritz) and, although the hour was not yet dinner time, removed his garments, pajamaed, retired.
Positions of the delegations:
British. It seemed clear that Statesman MacDonald had been persuaded by the Admiralty into an attempt to retreat from even his minimum concession to President Hoover, a concession which the previous British Cabinet (Conservative) had made half-heartedly in name, but which Laborite MacDonald was first to offer straightforwardly in part—the offer that Britain will accept naval parity with the U. S. in all classes of ships. As a headline sop to criticism the shrewd Admiralty last week cancelled contracts let to build the 10,000-ton cruisers Surrey and Northumberland.
France. Positivist Tardieu continued to repeat his positive offers: 1) France will agree to practically any scheme of naval reduction or limitation jointly proposed by the U. S. and Britain, providing they will sign a "security pact" pledging at least their active friendship and coöperation in case she is attacked; 2) France will accept any naval arrangement with Italy ensuring her own safety, but holds that she can only be secure by possessing a larger fleet than Italy's, unless the Powers will sign a Mediterranean "security pact"; 3) France prefers to limit by global tonnage rather than by categories.