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Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 221, 19 September 1927, Page 7

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RUMANIA V. HUNGARY.

Exciting Debate In League

Council.

PROPERTY IN TRANSYLVANIA.

(By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.)

GENEVA, September 18,

At the meeting of the council of the | League of Nations, Sir Austen Chamberlain read the report of the committee of the League "which had examined the dispute between Rumania and Hungary, relating to Hungarian properties in Transylvania. The report said there must be no agrarian inequality. The post-war peace settlement did not exclude Hungarian nationals from the reforms. The committee recommended that Hungary shoidd reinstate the judge to preside on the mixed arbitral tribunal. If she refused the League should not appoint the members of the tribunal. If Rumania refused, the council would be justified in taking appropriate steps to ensure that the tribunal should work. .The Hungarian delegate, Count Apponyi, said the report was not acceptable. He suggested that the question of the competence of the tribunal should be referred to the Hague Court. The Rumanian delegate, M. Titulesco, speaking emphatically and gesticulating violently, said he would accept the proposals if Count Apponyi would. M. Boncour supported the report of the committee, and Sir Austen Chamberlain proposed a final appeal to Rumania and Hungary to agree. Count Apponyi agreed to accept the decision of the council and to recommend it to his Government. The debate lasted for three hours, and I was adjourned. The council hall was | crowded. CAUSE OF TROUBLE. Refusal To Submit To Mixed Tribunal. RUMANIA WITHDRAWS JUDGE. (Received 12.30 p.m.) GENEVA, September 17. The dispute which is occuping the Council of the League arises out of Rumania's refusal to permit a mixed Hungarian and Rumanian arbitration tribunal to decida appeals by Hungarians in Rumania against the expropriation of their property under the Rumanian Agrarian Reform Law. The proposed solution requests Rumania (who has withdrawn her. judge from the tribunal, thereby rendering it impossible to act) to reinstate her judge. It also recommends that both parties should accept the principle that there should be no inequality in the application of the Rumanian Agrarian Law as between Hungarian and Rumanian Nationals. NO SURRENDER. Tired Debaters In Need Of Sleep.

TENSE SCENE IN GLASS HALL. GENEVA, September 18. The Council sat to-day from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m. trying to find a solution of the Hungarian land dispute. Finally, when tempers were heated, the president had to adjourn the meeting to give the protagonists a chance to sleep. There was a striking scene in the Glass Hall, which was crowded all day to witness the lengthy duel between Count Apponyi (Hungary), who spoke from one end of the table, a tall, upright, bearded and grey-neaded man of well over 80, and at the other end, M. Titulesco, clean-shaven, and resembling a modernised Chinaman. Count Apponyi occupied the whole morning in a dignified and restrained presentation of his case. M. Titulesco spoke with clear incisive--ness as an experienced lawyer. He said the Hungarian claims amounted to 400,000,000 gold francs, which was beyond Rumania's riieans. Neither would yield an inch to the other. Sir Austen Chamberlain made an attempt, with partial success, to obtain a unanimous vote on the main principles of his committee's recommendations. It was expected to bring the climax, and everyone became excited. Count Apponyi began to appeal to individual members to say yea or nay, but he went off on another long harangue. The Polish delegate, M. Sokal, said Poland accepted the report. SCOPE OF THE LEAGUE Does It Include Discussion Of Alcoholism? DIVISION OF OPINION. GENEVA, September 17. The demand for a general discussion of alcoholism by the League of Nations, which Britain and Australia strongly oppose, was formally submitted to the second committee in the form of a letter signed by the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Poland and Sweden, and endorsed by Belgium, Denmark, Czecho-Slovakia and Fiance, and supported by Italy and Portugal. The letter said the question introduced a very dangerous tendency to interfere with the national policy of nations by acting in the international sphere. The Covenant of the League referred to the traffic in women and children and in noxious drugs as being within the scope of the League, but it did not mention alcohol.

The Australian delegate, Mr. T. Ley, said the Covenant had not made the' committee competent to discuss prohibition. Those enthusiasts who were anxious to see the world "dry" only damaged their case by raising the subject before the League.

AS FRANCE SEES IT. PARIS, September IS. . newspaper '"Le Matin" says the election of Canada to the Council of the is welcome, because in future the British delegate will no longer be able to speak in the name of the whole Empire.