FATE OF PACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 11, 14 January 1929, Page 7

FATE OF PACT.

COOLIDGE ANXIOUS. Stubborn Resistance In U.S. Senate. PRESSURE TOR A VOTE. (Australian and X.Z. Press Association.) WASHINGTON'. January 13. The hope thai was entertained th;it a vote would be taken in the Senate last evening on the motion for the ratification of the Kfllngg Pact via* not fulfilled. Mr. H. Binphain (Rep.. circulated a round robin, to which it U alleged he had obtained 20 signatures-. pledj:injr the »i£natories to defeat the pact unle-s the interpretive motion wenapproved.

The President sent for Mr. Ringhaut for a conference after the Senate had adjourned. This lasted several hour-. Afterwards Mr. Binjjhain said Mr. Coolidge wanted to know hi< position, and he told him he did not want to take a leap in the dark.

Previously Mr. Coolidsie had conferred with Messrs. Curtis and Borah, and it is understood lie indicated to them 'iianxiety about the pact and the Cruiser Bill. It is reported that the President was advised that both measures would bo passed and that the blame for th" delay in ratifying the pact was to be laid upon those senators who desired the passage of the cruiser measure.

Mr. Borah intends to keep the pact before the Senate until it is voted upon. It is believed he will attempt to secure a limitation of the debate early in tho coming week.

Speaking in the Senate yesterday Mr. Samuel Shortridge (Rep.. California) said he believed Mr. Reed's opposition to the pact caused him to see danger where none- existed. He forgot that every nation had certain ineradicable rights which could not be abrogated. The Secretary of State, Mr. F. B. Kellogg, in addressing the Foreign Relations Committee at a meeting recently held in camera said the pact would commit none of the signatories to go to war in the defence of any country attacked in defiance of the treaty. Canada had made it plain that she would not be a party unless that were understood. Mr. Kellogg stated emphatically that there was nothing in the Notes from the various Governments which would change the pact. Mr. Kellog? said Britain's references to special zones of influence did not give her a reserved right to say what should be done anywhere in the Empire. He did not believe it left Britain free to make war anywhere in the world where she considered it to be in her interest. The pact contradicted that absolutely. All the British Note said, or would mean if it were written into the pact, was that there were certain regions the welfare and integrity of which were necessary to the security and defence of the British Empire.

He had said over and over again that any country had the right of selfdefence.

RUSSIA AND POLAND.

Soviet Pleased At Acceptance Of Principle. INVITATION TO LITHUANIA. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) LOXDOX - , January 13.

A dispatch from Moscow says a. second Note from the Soviet to Poland expresses satisfaction at the Polish Government's readiness to accept the principle of the Soviet's proposal.

Referring to the statement in the Polish Note as to the desirability of inviting tho other Eastern European States to participate in the proposed protocol the Soviet says its Note of December 29 made it perfectly clear that any State might join the protocol. As regards Lithuania the Soviet says only recently the relations between Poland and Lithuania aroused serious fears for the fate of European peace. Poland herself requested the League of Nations to discontinue the state of war existing between herself and Lithuania. Therefore, the Soviet Oovernment believed that Poland would welcome its invitation to Lithuania to join the protocol. The aim of the Soviet Government was to bring about as speedily as possible the operation of the Kello2<» Pact, even if only between a number of States, The. Soviet believed that the hope expressed by Poland for a clarification in the near future of the attitude of the 15 States which signed, but have not yet ratified, the Kellogg Pact, ought not to have prevented Poland accepting the Soviet's proposal and signing the proposed protocol. This would have a great moral effect. Good relations between Poland ami Russia would be of greater importance to peace if for one reason or another the ratification of the Kcllnpg Pact by all the other 15 signatories should by delayed for a considerable time.