STATESMEN MEET

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 223, 16 June 1932, Page 7

STATESMEN MEET

World Conferences DOCUMENTS STUDIED Problems for Lausanne EXCHANGES OF VIEWS Official Wireless. Rugby, June 14. The French Prime Minister, M. Herriot, called on Mr. Ramsay MacDonald this morning, and they resumed their study of documents relative to the Lausanne Conference. Mr. MacDonald, who, before leaving London, had an intimate discussion with the new German Foreign Minister, has arranged to meet Signor Grandi, Italian Foreign Minister, and it is presumed that the preliminary discussion of the problems before the Lausanne Conference will be continued. Statesmen in Geneva spent to-day mainly in informal conversations. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and Sir John Simon were the luncheon guests of Mr. Hugh Gibson, the chief United States delegate to the Disarmament Conference, and in the afternoon they conferred • '.-with Signor Grandi. The British and French Prime Ministers also had a long conversation this morning. At a private meeting of the Disarmament Conference Procedure Committee to-day a resolution was adopted ,the “ effect of which is to suspend the main work of the conference until the conclusion of the discussion now taking place between the representatives of the big Powers. ’ BREAKDOWN FEARED Disappointing Progress QUESTION REALLY SIMPLE Official Wireless. Rugby, June 14. The Archbishop of York and several of his Episcopal colleagues, in a letter to the Press, express disappointment that up to the present no progress has been made at the Geneva Conference toward serious disarmament. They express a fear that, unless a definite and effective policy is adopted by the Powers at the Conference within the next few days, a breakdown may be difficult to avoid. The signatories of the letter press for a substantial reduction of those armaments which by treaty are prohibited to Germany. The view is expressed that the presence of leading statesmen provides a suitable" opportunity. The Conference chairman, Mr. Arthur Henderson, stated yesterday that the moment had come when great decisions must and would be made.

“The Times” says: “It cannot be too emphatically stated that these decisions can only be taken by the responsible representatives of the leading nations. Experts must do their part They have the principal data. The question they have to answer is. really very simple. Are other Governments of the world prepared to apply to their own cases in whole or in part the limitations of armaments imposed on the vanquished countries after the war? Are they ready to abolish, curtail, or internationalise their own use of weapons which were declared to be of especially offensive character in 1919—the largest warships, largest guns, tanks, submarines, and aeroplanes? In these days of national impoverishment, most countries would probably warmly welcome the opportunity to reduce their Budgets by any commonly agreed proportional plan.”