ANGLO-SOVIET TREATIES

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 274, 14 August 1924, Page 7

ANGLO-SOVIET TREATIES

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S HAND FORCED BY EXTREMIST LABOUR GROUP RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER’S STORY An official Soviet newspaper declares that the extremist British Labour forced Mr. MacDonald’s hand and compelled him to sign the AngloSoviet Treaties, and that M. Rakovsky spurred the Labour group into action. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Copyright. London, August 12. The Riga correspondent of the “Times” says that, according to the official Soviet newspaper “Biednota,” the extremist British Labour group forced Mr. MacDonald’s hand and compelled him to sign the Anglo-Soviet treaties. The “Biednota” relates that, after the breakdown of the negotiations, the Labour group hurriedly mot, and saw Mr. A. Ponsonby, Lmder-oec-rotary for Foreign Affairs, op. August 5, and demanded that the British Government should concede the Soviet demands regarding compensation lor losses. The Cabinet, on the following day, invited M. Rakovsky to resume the negotiations. The “Biednota” gives the credit to M. Rakovsky, and asserts that he spurred the Labour group into action. It attaches the . utmost importance to the diplomatic inviolability of the Soviet trade representatives. Presumably it refers to the non-commercial activities which such agents pursue in foreign countries. A. foreign Commissariat communique exultantly explains that British creditors will not receive Russian money, but merely a portion of their own money in the shape of the British loan, the balance of which will bo available to revive Russian trade. —“The Times.”

SOVIET AND THE LEAGUE VOROWSKY MURDER CLAIMS SETTLED (Rec. August 13, 7.30 p.m.) London, August 12. The “Daily Herald” states that at the final meeting of the Anglo-Russian Conference, M. Rakovsky announced the Soviet’s willingness to send an observer to the League of Nations Assembly if accorded full diplomatic privileges, and the Russians’ claims for compensation against Switzerland in connection with the murder of Vorowsky, the Soviet delegate to the Lausanne Conference, were settled. — Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.