WESTERN AIR PACT

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 9

WESTERN AIR PACT

POWERS NEGOTIATE

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS

FAVOURABLE DEVELOPMENT

(Drifish Official Wireless.) (Received June 1* 1 p.m.)

RUGBY, May 31

Much of today's debate on national defence, raised in tho House of Commons by the Liberal Party, was concerned with the possibilities of negotiating a Western Air Pact, and Sir John Simon, Foreign Secretary, who was the, principal Government speaker, stated that progress was being made with this project. The proposals, he was glad to say, had now. been received in a preliminary and tentative form from the German Government, and the French and Italian Governments had also put forward their ideas on the subject. The British Government believed that the proposed Air Pact would necessitate an agreement regarding air strength, ahd also an understanding tts to the levels of that air strength. An effort should also be made in the Pact to arrive at some agreement for the outlawry of indiscriminate bombing. It was ardently to be hoped that these.would result in a speedily agreerl-upon limitation of air strength, and the British Government would do its utmost to attain such a result. Meanwhile the British Government would not be justified in suspending the recentlyannounced measures for increasing the air defences, but no one could suggest that these measures were in any way inimical to peace or would do the smallest injury to the negotiation of an Air Agreement. On the contrary he maintained that the measures taken would add to the prospects of reaching such an agreement. ATTENTION OF STATESMEN. Sir John Simon, who recalled the original suggestion for a Western Air Pact made in the Anglo-French communique of February 3. mentioned that he had communicated with the French Foreign Minister, and, with M. Laval's authority, he could state that an Air Pact was engaging the earnest attention of all the statesmen of the countries concerned. He hoped that they would soon find themselves in a situation when tho suggestions made could be usefully exchanged by the most appropriate method. A great step would then have been taken, if the subject could be pursued io the point of negotiation without prejudice s-3 to whether or not a more general r.'jttlement would be needed. Sir John's statement received general approval from the speakers who followed. Mr. Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal, in winding up the debate, said it was the intention of the British Government to make the most of the contributions in Herr Hitler's speech, and to see whether, building on .that basis, they could with others, who shared the same anxiety and determination, eventually effect a sadly-needed improvement in European affairs.