BRITISH VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 21, 25 January 1934, Page 7

BRITISH VIEW.

ON DISARMAMENT.

WOULD BE WELCOMED.

Government Declaration to Be

Made Soon.

WISH OF THE POWERS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, January 24. t It is probable that the British Government will, at an early date, make a declaration of its views upon the disarmament situation. _ Recent, diplomatic changes have indicated that such a statement from the British. Government would be welcomed.

It is understood that at the meeting of Cabinet this afternoon the situation regarding disarmament was reviewed in the light of recent developments. These included exchanges of Notes between France and Germany, the replies given by the German Government to the questions addressed to it by the British Ambassador in Berlin, and the results of conversations on the subject 'in which Sir John Simon took part during his visit to Geneva last week.

Very careful consideration is now being given to the question of what further step by Britain can be made to prepare the ground for a resumption of active work by the Disarmament Conference. Archbishop's Hopes. Speaking at the Upper House of Convocation, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, touched on the question of He expressed the deep anxiety with which the bishops were watching negotiations for a solution without which there could be no recovery for the world from the economic issues which beset it.

However strong and clear our ideals may be, he said, we must recognise the realities of the difficulties of adjusting the natural claim of Germany for equality with the equally natural claim of France for security, "but we earnestly hope that some preliminary convention may be obtained which will clear the way, within the near future, for a wider fuller convention on the basis, not of a levelling up of armaments but a levelling down by common consent, to a level necessary for internal safety and defence."