FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22347, 10 March 1938, Page 11

FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

VIEWS OF DOMINIONS

SOUGHT ?

QUESTION CXUSES UPROAR

IN COMMONS

LONDON, March 8,

An uproar occurred in the House of Commons, when Mr Geoffrey Je M. Mander (Liberal) asked the Secretary of State for the Dominions. (Mr Malcolm Mac Donald) v-hether the Dominions had been consulted over the foreign policy changes. Amid' Opposition cheers and counter cheers, Mr Mander asked:

"Because fundamental differences have been disclosed and Mr Chamberlain has abandoned collective security, are the Dominions satisfied with this radical departure?" Mr Mac Donald replied that from newspaper reports'it would not'appear that the Prime Ministers agreed that there had been a fundamental deDarture from the foreign policy. Mr Mander said that because of the unsatisfactory reply he would raise the whole question in the House of Commons at the earliest opportunity. Mr Mander expressed dissatisfaction with Mr Mac Donald's reply to the effect that the Dominion Prime ' Ministers had acquiesced in Mr Chamberlain's policy. He declared that such acquiescence was expressed because it was largely based on Whitehall's dispatches. The Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) did not reply to Mr A. V. Alexander (Labour), who asked whether, in view of the importance of the matter, the Prime Minister would table the telegrams exchanged by Britain and the Dominions about the British, Italian, and German negotiations. The Prime Minister replied in the affirmative to a question by Mr A. Jenkins (Labour), who asked if the Government's action in relation to the Dominions was in accordance with last year's consultations of the Imperial Conference.

The Australian Associated Press understands that Mr Chamberlain has informed the Dominions of the trend of the conversations between the British Ambassador to Berlin (Sir Nevile Henderson) and Herr Hitler. He has also dispatched a general outline of British and German conversations which has been discussed with the High Commissioners.

There is at present, however, no question of inviting the Dominions' comments on these or the British and Italian negotiations. Such a position would only arise when the stage is reached where commitments or obligations are involved.