POLICY OF BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 85, 10 April 1935, Page 12

POLICY OF BRITAIN

FREEDOM OF ACTION

NO COMMITMENTS AT STRESA

MINISTERIAL ASSURANCE

(British Official Wlrelesr I

(Received April 10, 2 p.m.)

RUGBY, April 9.

Following Sir John Simon's statement in the House of Commons on the Minister's European tour the Leader of, the Opposition (Mr. Lansbury) remarked that he was expressing the view of a very considerable body of opinion when he said that it was hoped that the Government were going to carry out a policy at Stresa of collective security through the League of Nations, based not merely on piling up poison gas or armaments but on disarmament. Answering various supplementary questions Sir John Simon gave an assurance that, as in the case of the ■previous conference, no definite commitment would be entered into without previous discussion in Parliament. The Government's freedom of action, he said, would not be affected in any 1 way, by what passed at Stresa. That conference would be followed closely :by a special meeting of the League ■ Council, but he did not anticipate that matters would there reach a final stage. Asked to explain Germany's reason : for the exclusion of Lithuania from 'countries with whom she was willing to make bilateral non-aggression pacts, Sir John Simon said that the reason, : given was confined to the present cir- : cumstances and he referred to the dif-•fei-ence in connection with Memel. Further asked whether the Government had considered putting down the [■question .of Memel on the agenda at < the League meeting, Sir John Simon said that the British Government had not waited until now, but had taken up the matter and pressed it on several occasions. At the end of last month they communicated with the French and Italian Governments on 'the subject and he hoped shortly to learn more clearly what their views were as the three Governments had a special interest in the Memel question. GERMANY AND COLONIES. The Prime Minister was asked ■whether, in order to remove misappre.hensions in German official quarters, which, if allowed to continue, must •adversely affect Anglo-German relations his Majesty's Government would consider the advisability of intimating ■to the German Government that a transfer to Germany of any colonial 'mandate by his Majesty's Government was a matter.which they were not in any. circumstances prepared to consider. ' Mr. Mac Donald replied that he had no reason to suppose that the German Government was under any such misapprehension. The policy of his .Majesty's Government had been repeatedly and clearly stated by present and previous Governments. ; • Replying to a question in the House of Commons, the Under-Secretary for Air (Sir Philip Sassoon) said that, if all the relative factors were taken into account, he believed the Royal Air Force had still a margin of superiority over the German air force. Nevertheless, the rate of Germany's air development was such as to cause the British Government grave concern. The situation would need careful and continuous watchfulness in order that any necessary alterations might be ,made in the British programme should .circumstances so demand. Herr Hitler had claimed parity in numbers with the Royal Air Force, but first line air- . craft was only one of the factors in reckoning the real military efficiency of any air force. A further meeting of Cabinet will be held tomorrow morning^before the ; departure of the Prime' Minister and ! Sir John Simon to Stresa. They will fly as far as Paris in a new de Havilland Dragon Rapide aeroplane ac- ; quired for official use. The British delegation will include the Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs ', (Sir Robert Vansittart).