SANCTIONS DATE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 109, 4 November 1935, Page 9

SANCTIONS DATE

NOVEMBER 18

DECISION AT GENEVA

STRICT ENFORCEMENT

SHORTENING OF WAR

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received November 4, 11.40 a.m.)

RUGBY, November 2.

The Co-ordination Committee of fifty-two States members of die League of Nations met at Geneva this afternoon and appointed November 18 as the date for conceited application by the Covenant-enforc-ing Staites of measures of economic pressure against Italy, comprising prohibition of the import into their territories of all goods other than gold and silver consigned from Italy, and an embargo on the export to Italy of certain key products 3 including iron, steel, aluminium, nickel, and other metals, rubber, and transport animals. Before November 18 further consideration will be given to cases requiring special treatment, but, as the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, insisted in commenting on the resolution, whatever decisians are reached, "the rule itself remains inviolate and will be strictly observed by us all." SEARCH FOE SETTLEMENT. Both the French Prime Minister and the British Foreign Secretary referred in their speeches at 'the meeting of the Co-ordination Committee to the search for a settlement of the italQ-Ethiopian war. ' . M. Laval,, having recalled • that France had on many occasions proclaimed before the League that it would remain loyal to the Covenant, said: "We must search as speedily as possible for a friendly settlement of the conflict. It is only within the framework of the League that any hope of success can be found." Sir Samuel Hoare said it was with great regret that they had been forced to take the decision to apply sanctions, but for those determined to uphold the principles of the Covenant no other course was possible. The object of their action was to shorten the duration of the war, and he hoped and believed it would succeed in achieving its purpose. "On one hand, as loyal members of the League, we feel it our bounden duty to undertake the duty imposed upon us by the Covenant," he said; "on the other hand, we are under a no less insistent obligation to strive for a speedy and honourable settlement of the controversy. It is common talk that during the last few days there have been conversations taking place between Rome, Paris, and London on the possibility of such a settlement. NOTHING MYSTERIOUS. "There is nothing mysterious or sinister about these discussions. It is the duty of all of us to explore the road of peace. This is what we have been doing, and shall continue to do. Up to the present the conversations have been nothing more than an exchange of tentative suggestions. They have had as yet no positive outcome. There is therefore nothing to report. If and when these suggestions take more definite form we shall take the earliest opportunity to bring them before the Council in the most appropriate manner. Nothing is further from our minds than to make an agreement which is not acceptable to the League, Abyssinia, and Italy. It is essential to act in a spirit of impartial justice."

Subsequent speakers, including the Belgian Premier, Senor de Madariaga (Spain), and M. Titelescu (Rumania), spoke in favour or asking Great Britain and France to continue to pursue negotiations and work in the name of the League for the re-establishment of peace, and the chairman, in closing the session, said he interpreted the sentiment of all in approving this suggestion.

M. Potemkin, the Russian delegate, dclared: "If the League of Nations fully approved the Covenant it can resist any attempts to violate the peace of the world."