CUSTOMS UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 13

CUSTOMS UNION

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA

QUESTION OF LEGALITY

BKITADTS ATTITUDE

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 26th March, 1.1 a.m.) RUGBY, 25th March. In reply to a number of questions in the House of Commons, tho Undersecretary' for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Dalton, made the following statement: "Information concerning the projected Customs union between Germany and Austria, which has been furnished to the Foreign Office by the German Ambassador and the Austrian Minister, is being very closely studied in its legal, commercial, and political aspects. No agreement between Austria and Germany has yet been concluded, but the two Governments have communicated to us certain proposals which are intended to form the subject for the future negotiation of a Treaty. "Whether or not a union constituted along the. lines of the proposals would involve the breach of any treaty provision is a legal question which cannot be answered at this stage, but which will have to be fully and carefully examined. EFFECT ON TRADE. "It is impossible to forecast the result of the proposed agreement on British trade. Much would obviously depend on the level of the duties which the proposed union, if brought into being, would impose upon imports from other countries. The House may rest assured that the Government will use all proper means to prevent injury as the result of any such agreement, to the trading interests of Great Britain. The Government has no present intention of entering into negotiations with Germany or Austria with a view to concluding a Customs union with either or both. Any such step would involve a radical change in our fiscal policy in relation not only to foreign countries, but to the Dominions and India." INDIRECT INFORMATION. Further questioned, Dr. Dalton said that the text of the proposals was communicated only last Monday. It was not before Friday that they received even the first intimation, which came not from a German or Austrian representative, but from the French Ambassador, who called at the Foreign Office to acquaint them with what had been heard. Dr. Dalton suggested that ;i further question bo tisked next Monday, when the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Henderson, who was now in Paris attending the International Committee with reference to the European Economic Union proposal, would bo back iv Commons to answer it. HENDERSON IN PARIS. A i-oirnmmique, issued to-day by the British Embassy in Paris,, stated that the British and French Foreign Ministers considered this morning the situation created by the proposed AustroGerman customs union. Mr. Henderson informed M. Briand that he had drawn the attention of thg Austrian and German Governments to the anxiety which had been manifested in many quarters as to the conformity of the proposed Treaty with existing obligations. He had expressed a strong hope that, before they proceeded further in the negotiation of the proposed customs union, opportunity would be given to the Council of the League of Nations, under whose auspices the Protocol of 1922 was negotiated, to assure itself at" its May meeting that the proposals were not contrary to engagements given by Austria in that instrument.