ABYSSINIAN DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 12

ABYSSINIAN DISPUTE

PEACE PROPOSALS

DEBATE IN COMMONS

BROAD OUTLINE GIVEN

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'(Received December 11, 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 10.

The House of Commons was packed late in the evening, when the Rt. Hon. H. B. Lees-Smith (Labour) brought up the question of the Abyssinian negotiations. He said the principle all should support was that no aggressor ought in any degree to profit from aggression. Mr. Anthony Eden, in reply,. announced that the proposals had not even been dispatched to either of the parties to the dispute. The procedure had yet to be completed between England and France. "What we are doing is interpreting the League's wish that the search for conciliation should be concurrent with the imposition of sanctions," he said. "The proposals are based firstly on an exchange of territory advantageous to both sides, secondly, League assistance to Ethiopia for the purpose of social, economic, and administrative development, and, thirdly, special facilities for Italian settlers and companies in connection with economic development. Details of die proposals cannot be published until the League organisation concerned has decided what to do with them. The proposals do not represent necessarily the viewpoint of the French or the British Government, but are suggestions aimed at getting the parties together. We are not seeking to impose terms on anyone. If Italy, Abyssinia, and the League accept a discussion on the basis of the suggestions, there is nobody here who is going to say 'No,' even if some of the proposals may not be particularly appealing to us."

Mr. F. W. Pethick-Lawrence (Lab.) said the Opposition would take the unusual course of voting against the Address in Reply to the King's Speech, as the only means of protest against "a terrible crime."

The Prime Minister (Mr. Stanley Baldwin) said: "If my lips were not sealed I would make a case and guarantee that no man would go into the lobby against us. I am unable to discuss at present the difficulties with Which we are surrounded for fear of imperilling the future."

Labour pressed the division, and were defeated by 281 votes to 139.