PEACE OF EUROPE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 7

PEACE OF EUROPE

A DELICATE TASK

DISARMAMENT PROBLEM

STAGE OF TRANSITION

THE BRITISH PROPOSALS

(Brltlsh Official Wireless.) (Received. March 24, 1 p.m.)

RUGBY, March 23. \ The Prime Minister (Mr. Ramsay < Mac Donald) opened the debate on foreign affairs in the House of Commons this afternoon. The Disarmament Conference having decided to proceed tomorrow afternoon with its consideration of the British proposal for the draft Convention, Mr. Mac Donald took this first available opportunity of informing the House of the proceedings during the visits he and the Foreign Secretary recently paid to Geneva and Rome. Their colleagues asked them to go to Geneva, he said, because every report showed that there was grave danger of_ a collapse in the Disarmament Conference and they believed it might be possible to avert it. They decided on the production of a plan which would cover the whole field of disarmament and. security. He anticipated that the first reaction would be general opposition to the plan, but that the second .reaction, after .consideration, would be that everyone would wish to take it as the basis for their immediate consideration. He was right regarding the first reaction, and he thought there was a good chance of being right regarding the second. The British plan contained for the first time the figures regarding the various arms, said Mr. Mac Donald. When the Conference resumed tomorrow it would be upon the figures they put forward. They were obliged to continue their principles to give equality to Germany. The time had gone, by when by a combination of any of the Powers any European people could be kept down by obligations it regarded as inconsistent with its selfrespect and honour. They had now to make it perfectly clear that the obligations placed on the nations of Europe were to bo obligations of honour and responsibility which would be all the more serious as they were undertaken in a voluntary way. But events had happened recently that had enormously increased the risk of taking a big. step like that at the present moment. Their plan presupposed a transitional stage. Equality itself would not be carried out, but during that stage there would be no rearmament. Mr. Mac Donald claimed that the result of their intervention at Geneva was that the hope of an agreement had been restored and the Conference heartened to pursue its work upon a definite sketched plan which it could consider in detail. . EUROPE IS NERVOUS. "We have provided a form, in which an agreement may be reached," ho said. "Europe is very unsettled. It is in a very nervous condition. Fortunately, there is one thing that can save us all, and tha£ is a well founded confidence in each other. That is lacking more today than for a very long time. Events have happened and speeches have been made which naturally and properly have added to that sense of' insecurity, and eveh after we arrived^ in Geneva some of those events occurred. I hope this country Trill not allow these events to divert it from the path it has mapped out for itself as the only path upon which security and peace can be found. We have nothing to say about those events except in relation to their international effect, but we'"cannot expect other nations to be indifferent." Referring to their visit to Borne, Mr. McDonald said that on their arrival a short document was handed to them which showed Signor Mussolini's views regarding an effective policy of collaboration between the four Western Powers to maintain peace in the spirit of the Kellogg Pact and of the "No Force" Pact which had been contemplated by the Five-Power Conference as a return for Germany's getting-a declaration in principle of their willingness to give her equality of status—adeclaration that those- Powers should not resort to force to try and solve any of their, immediate political differences, feign or Mussolini felt that Article 19 of the Covenant re treaties was not to become dormant. There were two sides in Article 19. It said the Treaty made should be observed and only altered by consent of both parties, but it also said that treaties containing provisions which in efflux of time had raised problems which might result in most undesirable conflict ought to be subject to revision. PEEIOD OF TEN YEARS. The plan laid down that the proposed co-operation should be carried out with-' m the framework of the League, and ten years was indicated as the first period for the Treaty, should if be possible to arrange it. Indications were given that if this conception of cooperation between the Powers were adopted as an immediate aid to peace the friendship engendered could have further benencial. consequences. That would be necessary, and the British ■Government would work out further details in this respect. They expressed themselves as very much interested in Signor Mussolini s proposal, and promised to study it in all its bearings. They indicated some matters of essential detail for which provisioii must be made: for instance, how the smaller States affected should be consulted. Ho could give those States an assurance that so tar as the conversations were concerned there was no foundation whateverfnr the fears recently expressed, in their view those smaller States had the_ right to be consulted wherever ™7 +1 SP t eClal ™terests were concerned, and that would be done. The motive of the 'plan was undoubtedly to remove the causes of war m J^urope, its emphasis being upon the League taking up the responsibility imposed upon it by Article 19 of the Covenant It must not exclude the smaller States from playing their proper part, tor in some respects they had* a greater interest than the larger ones m removing the causes of irritation wherever it existed in Europe. Should the matter be pursued to the point where the League had to take it up the British Government would give them every support. Mr. Mac Donald mentioned that on their way through Paris they informed tfteirench Ministers, who made public their desire for loyal co-operation in the interests of peace between the four -buropenn Powers tvho were permanent members of the League. ' THE IMMEDIATE DANGER. He said that the Government welcomed Signor Mussolini's idea. There were no greater immediate dangers to I-

Europe than that when the inevitable Nationalist revival occurred the treaties might be the subject of challenge by one interest, and under conditions which would only renew animosity and ruin the prospect of friendly accommodation. The conversations in Rome amounted to this, that now, when it was perfectly plain to everybody that national life was being revitalised in Europe, the four Powers should meet before they might be driven apart and try to remove by negotiation dangers which would have to be met in any event. I "1 express no opinion, though I entertain strong hopes .of the result," said Mr. Mac Donald. "But I do say that were- any of the four Powers to 'reject forthwith and without full consideration the idea about which we were informed at Rome, or were they to put obstacles in the way until it had passed into the mournful oblivion of lost opportunities, or if appearing !to accept it to promote peace they were to use it for their own self-regarding purposes, their responsibility for what, may follow would be immeasurable."

The British Government was now trying to devise means of solving what was a problem of the greatest delicacy. Reconsideration of treaties was not enough, and the other nations must make substantial contributions. He expressed the "hope that the means of co-operation for which they were searching -would be found and that, they would be of a nature to commend themselves to the sympathy and aid of their-friends beyond the Atlantic.