BRITAIN SECRETS GERMANY'S ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 7

BRITAIN SECRETS GERMANY'S ACTION.

TREATY INFRACTION. Repudiation of Clauses of Versailles Pact. CONTROL OF WATERWAYS. British Official Wireless. (Received 1 p.m.) RUGBY, November 16. It is expected that Mr. Anthony Eden will make a statement in the House of Commons regarding Germany's repudiation of the clauses of the Versailles Treaty internationalising ' the rivers Rhine, Elbe, Danube, Oder, Niemen and Moselle. "The Times" says that each fresli J announcement of the kind makes more difficult the task of those who are endeavouring to promote international co-operation and settlement of outstanding questions by mutual goodwill. The paper finds it difficult to believe that Germany has achieved anything unattainable by more regular methods. It agrees that Germany had legitimate objections to the system of international control of waterways, but points out that agreement on the subject, largely based 011 proposals she herself put forward, was reached in April and was to have become effective in six weeks time. All the Powers concerned had agreed to its terms with the exception of Holland, whose consent also had, within tlfte last few days, been definitely promised. Replying to Mr. C. R. Attlee in the House of Commons regarding the German denunciation, states a later cable, Mr. Eden recalled Herr Hitler's statement 011 May 21, 1035, regarding the remaining articles of the Versailles Treaty, including, it was understood, those relating to waterways, that the German Government would only carry out, by peaceable understanding, such revision as was inevitable in the course of time. Mr. Eden added that protracted but considerably successful negotiations had been in progress for many years with a view to reconciling the German desideration with other Powers. The British Government, therefore, regretted that! Germany had again abandoned negotiation for unilateral action, not because British trading inteiyests were jeopardised but because such action would render it more difficult to conduct international relations.