CAUSE OF DANGER

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1937, Page 7

CAUSE OF DANGER

CONFLICT IN EUROPE. Friction and Suspicion Must be Eliminated. TREND OF BRITISH EFFORTS. British Official Wireless. (Received 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, February 8. "It is still tho view of the British Government that the elimination of friction ami suspicion between various countries in Eastern Europe is one of the cardinal factors ill the field of European progress." This statement was made in tlie House of Commons in an answer by \ iseount Cranboriie to a member who sought to elicit the attitude of the Government to the so-called Kastern pact between Poland. Russia. Germany. Czechoslovakia and the Baltic States and Finland, which was discussed in the su'iimer of 1935. Viscount Cranborne reminded the House that the repudiation of the Treaty by Locarno by Germany in the following year had modified tlie situation. The efforts of the British Government had since then been directed in the first instance to restoring , the position in Western Europe, but it was expected that progress in the negotiations for a new western agreement would lead to a widening of the area of discussions so as to include the solution of other European problemf=. Replying to another question, the Foreign Under-Secretary said that no commitments existed whereby, under the pact between France and Russia Britain would be involved in a European war. He thought the French and Russian Governments were fully aware of that position.