GENERAL ACCEPTANCE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 118, 21 May 1928, Page 9

GENERAL ACCEPTANCE

SPECIFIC RESERVATIONS WAY OPEN TO NEGOTIATIONS Australian Press Association. LONDON, 19th May. The diplomatic cprrospondent of the "Daily Telegraph" understands that the British reply to Mr. Kellogg has been dispatched and will be handed

to the State Department at Washington to-day, after which the text will bo released here. It is believed the reply constitutes an acceptance, with new specific reservations formulated in London or in the Dominions. - The first impressions regarding Sir Austen Chamberlain's reply are1 favourable. It is believed that by a frank acceptance of the principle, combined with a tactful recognition- of French difficulties, the way has been paved for negotiations. ■ Attention naturally is centred on tho submissions of the Monroe principle, which will apply to Britain, as well as the United States. In respect to tho exclusion of certain diplomatic fields from the operation of the pact, what is meant is well understood, though Egypt is not specifically mentioned. POSITION OF FRANCE. Mr. J. L. Garvin, in the "Observer," approves of the reply, and stresses1 that, while' it may be possible to harmonise the pact with the Covenant and Locarno, not for a moment could Britain and the Dominions assume any sort of responsibility for France's arrangements with the Little Entente and Poland, which seem to imply armed resistance 'to any revision of the Versailles frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Garvin concludes by hoping that wo will now leave France to conduct her own case, and not risk slipping into a position where America and Germany will be on one side of tho diplomatic table,, and Britain and France on the other. The "Sunday Times" opines that some may regard the reply as veering towards frigidity, but feels that would be a wrong impression. Sir Austen Chamberlain's suggestion amounts to no more than a request that Mr. Kellogg's verbal interpretations of, his intentions should be incorporated in the treaty itself.