Tuesday, 22 April 1930: London Naval Conference Ends with Incomplete Results

London: 

The London Naval Treaty – focal point of the London Naval Conference which has been going on for the past two months -- is signed by the five participating nations: Japan, the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy.  The treaty marks a partial victory for diplomacy: all five nations agree to suspend expansion of their battleship fleets until 1936.  However, only three of the countries – Japan, the U.S., and U.K. – agree to limitations on their fleet sizes.  France and Italy could never resolve their differences with each other nor the rest of the participants, and so did not agree to fleet size limitations.  Perhaps indicative of the anticlimactic ending after 13 weeks of meetings, the U.S. delegation is already at the docks ready to board their ship home the same day of the signing. 

British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald says, “We have now gone as far as we can at present.  Compared with Washington and Geneva [earlier conferences], we have progressed far.  Compared with our desires, we have fallen short.  We part today in a spirit of active good will, prepared to take every means which offers itself to secure a five-power agreement on all points.  Our work has been but partly done, but all good work must be done in stages.”

London Naval Conference delegates

Cettinje, Yugoslavia:  A communist agitator guns down four people, including the chief of the gendarmes, and wounds three others, before being killed by police.