FEDERATION OF EUROPE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20028, 9 September 1930, Page 11

FEDERATION OF EUROPE.

« M. BRIAND TO ADDRESS CONFERENCE. (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, September 7. At the meetings of the League of Nations, which begin at Geneva this week, the League Council to-morrow and the Assembly on Wednesday, ono of the most prominent subjects will bo M. Briand's European federation scheme. M. Briand is to address a special conference upon it on Monday afternoon, and it is his own desire that his proposals should figure formally upon tho Assembly's agenda. Opinion regarding them shows some differences among the delegates from different States. The British insistence that any special European organisation should "be kept strictly within the League framework is supported in many quarters, but otherwise there is some discussion as'to whether the economic or political aspect of the scheme should be most developed. It is generally believed that the British delegation is bv no means enthu r siastic about accepting any political commitments beyond those involved in League membership, and is inclined to prefer that precedence be given to the economic side of tho project. The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Arthur Henderson, had a conference yesterday with the Canadian delegate, Sir Robert Borden, and will maintain tho usual close contact with all the Dominion delegations. VIEWS OF THE POWERS. The replies of the Continental Powers to M. Briand's Memorandum on the United States of Europe continue to reach the Quai d'Orsay. Some of the individual features of the replies are of interest, and in some cases rather surprising, wrote tho diplomatic correspondent of tho "Daily Telegraph" ou July 14th. Greece, for instance, asks that her traditional enemy, Turkey, should be invited to participate in the proposed federation, although Turkey is not a member of the League of Nations. This Greek request is explained by the recent settlement of Turco-Greek ' differences by M. Veniselos—a settlement greatly "facilitated by Italian diplomacy. Rome, it may be recalled, also suggested Turkey's inclusion in any European federation. Belgium would wish to keep out of it the more political and controversial elements, which threaten to hamper economic co-operation. Poland, on the other hand, in the briefest of replies, shows little interest, except in tlie political question of stabilising the existing frontiers. Rumania, although an ally of France, adopts a line akin to Belgium, hi pointing out that economic collaboration should be possible without a previous reconsideration of awkward political problems. The Rumanian attitude is in marked contrast, in this respect, with the Polish, which appears to be chiefly concerned with the political aspects of M. Briand's scheme. Lithuania, in an oblique reference to the Vilna controversy, points out that tlie federation could not succeed until the violent antagonisms created among its members by international misdeeds had been removed by adequate reparation. Austria, like Lithuania, follows the Italian precedent of insisting that the nations of Europe shall first be placed on a footing: of real equality. All the Powers emphasise the need of subordinating tbo proposed new institution to the wider League, and of avoiding the creation of a new and rival secretariat or kindred organisation.