GENOA CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1922, Page 7

GENOA CONFERENCE

FORTY-FIVE NATIONS INVITED

ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION OF E.UROPE.

(MtOJI OUR OWK COMISPONDWr.) LONDON, v 20th January.

Plans for the Conference at Genoa, to discuss the economic reconstruction of Europe 'move quickly forward. The Italian Government hag been entrusted with the plans, and already every nation in Europe except Turkey—twentyfour in all—has been invited to attend. The date has been fixed for Bth March, In audition to delegates from European countries, there will be representatives of the United States, Japan, and South American' States. It, is expected that 45 nations --will participate. Whether the British (Dominions will he directly represented is still in doubt. The decision rests with the various Governments^ for. the-issue of- invitations depends on the character of the response to the soundings that have been made. It may be pointed out that Ireland now ■comes within the category of a Dominion for this purpose. The Dail has not yet decided the matter;

Assuming that.the delegation and secretariat for each nation will number 40, it seems probable that the personnel gathered in Genoa will 1000 | persons. It will be the largest and most' important international .conference ever ! held. Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Russia will be invited to send delegates; It is rumoured that both^ Dr. Wirth (Gernian Chancellor)* and Herr Rathenau 1 will attend. Turkey, whose position as a [European Power is now nearly at 'vanishing point, the only nation' of importance that will not be there. It is at present a house divided against itself, and the respective positions of-the Constantinople and Angora Governments is yet indeterminate. x V

; SOVIET REPRESENTATION^ Judging by the hints that are to Be found in the latest Soviet papers, Lenin does not intend to be .there if it takes .place in "Genoa, but if the European Powers, and Great Britain in particular, accept Chicherin's suggestion that the Conference shall take place in London instead of Genoa, the Soviet ruler may favour this country with his presence. According to the Moscow papers,, the Soviet delegation will* be quite numerous' —no fewer than 15 delegates—and the following names are mentioned among the candidates: Chicerin, Litvinoff, Krassin, Joffe, Furstenberg-Hanetsky, Kutler (the . ex-Tsarist Minister of Finance), Rykoff, Bogoliepoff, Alsky, ; Schmidt, Colonel Kameneff (the Com- ! m.ander-in-Chief^ of the Soviet Army), General Skesarev, and Morimeky. f FRANCE'S POSITION. What France will' he in the matter is not yet dear. It seems, however, • unlikely, that"the new Ministry, Whether or not,its Premier comes in person; would go as far as to. detach France | from a conference to which', she wa« pledged in principle from this first day of the Cannes meetings The principle that a country's successive Governments should each respect the publicly-given international engagements. of.- its predtecessors'is of importance for the conduct of international relations, as France herself has often pointed'out. .^ .-' 1 A FULL/AGENDA. "Of no iess consequence than a full attendance at Genoa is a full agenda,' says the Daily "If the Conference'■were to confine itself narrowly to such purely economic questions as exchanges, currencies, debts, and trade, it might, possibly have no more definite or substantial -than, the former Economic Conference held in Brussels. In the • Europe 'of, to-day economic questions are tied up with and dominated by political "questions; and but little practical progress.can be' made with the former, unless the latter are open to frank iMscussion. Mr. Lloyd George put the point plainly in his opening speech at Cannes, and repeated it in his notable memorandum to :M. Briand. If the Genoa Conference is, to be of serious value for the revival of European trade, political question's must.keep, their place at it. The basic conditions of such a "revival are purely political; they Ure disarmament, mutual-, peace agieements, open frontiers, and the balancing of budgets by taxation."