IS IT PEACE?

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 285, 2 December 1925, Page 7

IS IT PEACE?

MIRACLE OF LOCARNO THE SIGNING IN LONDON. NEW ERA FOR EUROPE. A FELICITOUS DAY. (By Cable.—Press Association,—Copyright.) lltecclved 31 a.tn.) LONDON, December 1. The Treaty of Locarno has been signed with almost whispered benedictions nud felicitations. There is no denying the solemnity of the occasion. Indeed, there was a strange restraint. . Evoryone was ns if overawed by the momentous achievement. Even the glamour of the famous gilded room of the Foreign Office, alternately illumined hy the sickly December sun or the blaze of six huge flood lights, under which the cinematograph operators worked, failed to thaw the strict official atmosphere.

MARS LOOKS DOWN. Thcro is the piquant fact that in the handsome, vaulted ceiling, studded with mythological characters and symbols, the figure of Mars looked down over the very spot where Sir Austen Chamberlain, K.G., initiated the epoch-making hour of peace. Saturn glowered over tho dais on which two hundred international journalists sat With a battery of cinematograph cameras on the platform overhead. AS AT LOCARNO. Delegates were seated at the blue baize table in the. same order as at Locarno. There was only one speech in English, that of Mr. Baldwin's, nt the closing. The rest were in French, with the exception of the Germans, who both spoke with high-pitched voices in their mother tongue. All spoke as if In cross-table, converse. The only touches of vigour were when M. Briand, speaking direct to Dr. Luther and Herr yon Stresemann, pictured the spectre of France's sacrifices, and breathed a fervent hope that the Locarno Treaty would render a repetition of war impossible, and Herr yon Stresemann's equally lofty assent to the new spirit of world concord.

CHAMBERLAIN BEAMS. This drew a muffled chorus of bravos from the Press dais. Sir Austen Chamberlain was obviously delighted at Herr yon Stresemanii's graceful reference to his and lady Chamberlain's influence at Locarno. Chamberlain looked round beamingly and smiled and bowed to Ida wife. M. Briand was the orator of the morning, but not the usual impassioned Briand. Everybody seemed determined that this new page of history should not be made in strident tones. In fact, MM. Scinloja and Benes inaudibly whispered their few phrases of rekindled hope, all beaming. Congratulations came at the end, when there was an orgy of handshaking among the members of the diplomatic corps, who fringed the historic table near the foot of which were representatives o. the Dominions, including Sir Joseph Cook, of Australia, and" Sir James Allen, of New Zealand.

THE SEVEN SEALS. Mr. Baldwin (Prime Minister) remarked that he and Sir Austen Chamberlain both signed to show the importance with which the Ministry regarded the document, further proof of which was the presence of every member of the Cabinet with Earl Balfour sitting nearby among the ladies, nodding his approval. + n _ *, °f e there waa an ea e e r desire to see the famous Pact with its scroll of rich blue ribbon, held in place by seven huge red seals, with the sicniaZTr . h ° , Scvon " atio,ls opposite. according to alphabetical order in the French vocabulary. Thus Allemaene Set t ime - first - po!and £" ______ Sl °, vak,a si S» e(1 only the supplementary documents, with France, davtt aty ° f Locarno was totoy by the representatives of the Powers concerned. .«? . _ i ß natureß t0 the treaty were of thl T. y S vaTioUS PfcnSpotentiaries ____? _ °J ers ' wll .° sat nro »" cI a wctant\Z _ - b,e ,n the reception room at «>e Foreign Office. Before the war this room wa s used for diplomatic recepThe Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Bald3___i « nd » Sir Austpu t'h-mberlain signed for Britain. «, Be . "i. 1 the P le »Jpotentiaries around the table were the diplomats representa!L signatory Powers, the British Ambassadors to Paris, Berlin and Brussels members of the Cabinet and the S? Lo "imisssioners for the Dominions. the treaty, as it was drawn un at J-ocamo. bad been typewritten. The «nal drafts were signed by the plenipotentiaries. The whole of the documents were bound in an imposing cover which was sewn together with ribbons m Locarno's heraldic colours—blue and red—and they were sealed up with the Locarno city seals. Since it was printed tho treaty had been carefully checked by every Foreign Office concerned. Later it was"reprinted on special treaty paper. WELCOME TO FOREIGNERS. Crowds of people assembled at Victoria station yesterday to witness the arrival of the delegates of the foreign •rowers who had come to London for the signing of the treaty. The first to arrive were the German delegates, Dr. Luther, Chancellor, and ilerr Stresemann, Foreign Minister, and M, \andervelder, Belgian Foreign Minister. They were most cordially welcomed by Sir Austen Chamberlain -British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and were then driven to their hotels. Later in the day M. Briand. French I remier and Foreign Minister, and Dr Benes, Czecho-Slovakian Foreign Minister, arrived. They walked arm-in-arm with Sir Austen to waiting motor cars. In the course of a statement M. Briand said the signing, of the treaty would be a most important step in the life of the nations. "There must be a new starting point for Franco-German collaboration," said M. Briand. "I will also take «P with Mr. Winston Churchill, Chancellor of tbe Exchequer, the question of the settlement of France's war debt, to which my Cabinet is determined to find a solution."