IMPERIAL POLICY

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18094, 9 June 1924, Page 9

IMPERIAL POLICY

DEBATE IN COMMONS. DOMINIONS TO PARTICI- ' i ■ p ATE IN TREATY NEGOTIATIONS. (»S CABLB—PKESS ASSOCIATION COPTBIGET.) (betjtes's. telegrams.) LONDON, June 6. In the House of' Commons Mr Ramsay Mac Donald announced that Canada acquiesced in the ratification of the Lausanne Treaty. He hoped that the Irish Frees State would also agre, so as to enable the treaty to be ratified. In regard to foreign policy, Mr MacDonald expressed the opinion that if the Government were going to engage in further negotiations that would commit either the honour or resources of the Empire, the Imperial Conference resolution in this connexion should be the subject of very careful enquiry by constitutional representatives of the Dominions as well as of Great Britain. "The representatives of the X>ominsions," he said, "were men of wide experience in governmeUl; and constitutional working, sitting with us as a sort of specialised sub-committee at the Imperial Conference, to explore whether we could not make some provision." The resolution must lie a little more definite, he continued, so as to removepossible misunderstandings; but he emphasised that the British Government must have power to make rapid decisions. On three important occasions, in his own brief experience, it had been very necessary for him to take his courage in his hands and risk the and say, "That is our decision," and on each occasion the result justified his action. Mr Mac Donald emphasised that the so-called "Chanak telegram" tremendously changed the relations between the Dominions and Great Britain. He promised a statement to the House before anything definite was done. ] Mr Lloyd George condemned the late i Government's action, and declared that all it did was to tell the Dominions that it had agreed with the Allies that the Dominions could not bo represented. What would be the position, he asked, in the tivent of trouble in the East? He pointed out that Russia would not abandon her aspirations for Constantinople and the Straits, and they could not imagine that Italy would always be satisfied to see great derelict lands, which wtire once prosperous under tho Italian flag, now languishing under the Turkish flag, without making some effort. Turkey might always bo 'depended upon to provoke a quarrel, and trouble was inevitable in the East. The Hon. \V. G. Ormsby-Gore (Conservative) declared that Mr Lloyd George's remarks were mcffit mischievous. ' Earl Winterton (Conservative) said that had Mr Lloyd George's Turkish policy been allowed to proceed, it would have gone a long way towards making the problem of the government of India impossible. There was nobody more universally distrusted in India, nobody whose policy was believed jto have been more disastrous to the retartions of India with Great Britain, than Mr Lloyd George. •Sir Edward Grigg (Liberal) denounced the omission of the late Government to send separate plenipotentiaries to Lausanne. The was that the Lausanne Treaty was only a pieoe treaty, not signed by the whole Empire. Mr Mac Donald said, in regard to procedure in the future, that the Government stood by the resolutions of tho last Imperial Conference that the Dominions interested should be informed before treaty negotiations were opened, and, where their interests are directly concerned,., they should be represented. So far as he was concerned, the , resolution would always be put" into operation. He expressed tho opinion that the time had come when the Government must consider what machinery was required to be created to conduct a united Imperial policy, particularly in regard to foreign affairs.

A FURTHER CONFERENCE ? TO LAY DOWN PROCEDURE. (AUSTRALIAN' AS" K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received June Bth, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, June 6. Newspapers interpret Mr MacDonaid's statement in tho Commons on the Lausanne Treaty as foreshadowing a further conference of the Dominions to lay down future procedure. Mr Mac Donald remarked that the Colonial Office sends' out a weekly cablegram to Now Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa, outlining foreign events. Naturally Dominion Ministers begin to express opinions on these events, but opinions expressed at the end of long cablegrams are not negotiation. The question arises whether it is possible or necessary to supplement the cablegrams by creating a contact which comes nearer to a share of obligation, and removes misunderstanding.

OPPOSITION CHALLENGE. ON CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS. UCSTBALIAK AND J».S. CA3LI ABSOCUTIOB.) LONDON, June Q. In the House of Commons Mr Clynes (Lord Privy Seal) announced that, in consequence of the great interest of the Dominions, two days, Jun« T7th and 18th, had been allotted to the debate on the preference resolutions. Mr Baldwin (Leader of the Opposition) has given notice of motion challenging the Government's policy on its rejection of the Imperial and Economic Conference resolutions.