SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1933, Page 13

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

SIE J. SIMON'S STORY

REPLY TO BARON YON NEURATH

(British Official Wlrelesi.) EUGBY, October 17. The Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, tonight broadcast a statement in regard to the recent disarmament negotiations and the withdrawal »of Germany from the Conference. He said that every man or woman who at all appreciated the importance of good international relations to the future of tho world had realised the gravity of that event. No word coming from him, no word spoken in the name of the British Government .of this country, would be chosen to aggravate that situation. Their future course of action in the face of the withdrawal of Germany was, a subject which Cabinet as a whole would have to consider. It would involve communications with other Powers, including, he would hope, the Government of Germany herself, and no one with any sense of the responsibility which rests on his Majesty's Government would rush into premature declarations. Eeviewing the sequence of events Sir John Simon recalled that a draft convention had been submitted to the Conference by Mr. J. Kamsay MacDonald and its general lines everywhere welcomed. It was unanimously adopted in the first reading as a basis for the future convention. But the discussion had- resulted in numerous reservations being made by various States, and there were gaps in the British draft still to be filled. EFFORT TOWARDS AGREEMENT. "Representatives of the greater Powers of Europe and of the United States have recently been trying by informal conversations to reach an agreement on these serious outstanding, points," said Sir John Simon. "It is not that theso great Powers claim superior' authority, for every member of tho Conference has an equal right, but if the difficulties which separate the points of view of certain great States could be solved that would enormously ease the final work. I felt much encouraged by tho recent conversations up till very lately. An approach to a common point of view between France and Italy was undoubted. The co-operation of the United States was never more valued or more valuable, and I claim we have exerted every possible effort to bring them together. Britain has a right to speak for she has not waited for general disarmament, but has, in an effort to set an example, reduced her own forces to the edge of risk. "Germany's position is known to all. Here is a great community which, after the loss of the war, was disarmed under the Treaty of Versailles. Britain took a leading part in securing in December last a declaration subscribed to by France, Italy, and. the United States, as well as ourselves, that Germany ought to receive 'equality of rights in the regime of security.' "By that declaration we stand; we have never wavered from it, and we assert its validity today. But a new fact—very serious fact —has emerged which does not in the least alter the pledge which we gave, but necessarily affects the detailed manner of its fulfilment. REASON TOR HESITANCY. "Eeeent events in Europe have unquestionably increased the feeling of nervousness, the sense of positive alarm, which is the real reason why heavilyarmed States hesitate to weaken their armed forces. f'Lord Cecil said two days ago: 'It is a very genuine anxiety. It would be folly to ignoro it.' "There is moro anxiety in England about the international situation than for many years past. And on the Continent tho feeling is more acute —everybody knows why. We therefore tried in, .these conversations to work out

modifications in the British, plan which this new situation, required if agreement was to be reached. "Mr. Henderson, I am sure, thoroughly agreed with our point of view, for ho declared on October 9: 'On some of the more important questions an approach is manifestly influenced by the present unsettled state of Europe, and the- ensuing distrust, fea-rs, and alarms.' We began discussing among ourselves whether in applying the accepted principle of proceeding by stages we must not set up a suitable system of international supervision and start by transformations in Continental armies which have already been provisionally agreed. Meanwhile, there would be from the beginning of the convention an agreement that no Power would manufacture or acquire any arms of tho sort to be eventually abolished. "Once these first steps were loyally taken the necessary feeling of security would grow, and the nest stage, which would involve a really substantial disarmament by the heavily-armed Powers, would begin. In discussing this scheme, Germany stipulated, qaite rightly, that disarmament of the second stage must be all laid down in detail in the Treaty itself, and that supervision must be applied generally and not to one or two countries alone. "With all that I quite agree," said Sir John Simon, "and I certainly thought that we were finding in our discussions a much closer approach to a possible basis of agreement than- ever before. . "I reported these steps in language which no fair-minded person could regard as provocative to the Bureau of the Conference- on Saturday, and I regretted very much that the German Foreign Minister, Baron yon Neurath, was not there to take part. MEANING OF "SAMPLES." "I do not for a moment suggest that an agreement had been reached, but I do most emphatically say that the question which seemed likely to give most trouble was not the proposal of successive periods, but the question whether Germany should have from the very beginning what were called 'samples'—that is, types of weapons now prohibited to her. I had asked' to be informed by tho German Government exactly what they meant by samples. I had reminded her Foreign Minister that we had been promised this information.. We were not the only Government who were waiting for it. What happened? "When at length the German claim was formally restated there cannot be the least doubt that instead of defining what was meant by samples, the claim was for substantial re-armament from the very beginning. "I very much, regret to see that Baron yon Neurath, in addressing the foreign Press, yesterday in Berlin, has been accusing me of taking a false view as, to this, and, indeed, of misstating facts. lam perfectly ready to publish documents and records to show it, and, indeed, in view of what he has said, the British Government are entitled to dp so. "There is not the "slightest doubt in the lnihd of any of us who- have been closely in touch with these discussions on behalf of this, country that the attitude taken up by the German Government at the present moment represented a further widening of the breach, and that all the good work which has been put into the recent conversations by all of us with mutual goodwill was jeopardised if not precluded by. this mew attitude. ?' I voice the thought of the British Government as a whole," Sir John Simon concluded, "when I say that nothing shall bo left, undone in the future—as nothing, I believe, has been left undone in these recent negotiations —to attain the success of- an honest and honourable compact upon which the hopes of mankind for the future .peace of the world are largely dependent." Baron yon Neurath, it was reported yesterday, blames Britain for Germany's withdrawal, alleging that details of Germany's demands were forwarded by London to Washington in so distorted a fashion that it looked as if Germany was making new demands. '' We adhered to tho British plan, but the British plan is.not recognised even by its originators," ho said. "Sir John Simon asserts that we wont beyond our former claims. That is not correct. I repudiate an attempt '■ to place on us responsibility which should fall on others."