NEED FOR EMPIRE PROPOSALS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 63, 17 March 1925, Page 5

NEED FOR EMPIRE PROPOSALS

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT,)

LONDON, 11th February. When, a deputation from the League of Nations Union waited on the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Foreigu Affairs, a letter written by Viscount... Grey., of r Fallpdon . to.-, Professor .Gilbert Murray was read, i "The Geneva. Protocol," said Lord Grey, "like the Treaty of Mutual Assistance and Guarantee.before.it, is an attempt to solve the problem'of security. The system of exclusive alliances and competition in armaments that existed in Europe before 1914 proved a lamentable failure. The Protocol adopts another aud more hopeful principle. From the British point of view there are objections to some parts of it. There is force in some of these objections, but we hope that after full examination and consultation with the Dominions the Government will b,e able to 1 propose some amendments that will meet valid objections. It ■would'be most unfortunate if we were continually to reject what is proposed at Geneva without giving any indication of something that the British Commonwealth of Nations is prepared to support.^ The problem of security lies at the Very root of European difficulties. To solve it is the paramount need in international affairs. Our rejection *• non-acceptance of what has hitherto been proposed or accepted by other nations makes the problem, more than ever pressing and urgent."