ETHIOPIA'S REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 145, 16 December 1935, Page 11

ETHIOPIA'S REPLY

'NOT HEE CONCERN ONLY'

VITAL LEAGUE PROBLEM

(British Official Wireless.) (Received December 16, noon.) * RUGBY, December 15. In its Note to the League on the Paris proposals the Ethiopian Government declared its conviction that the problem of a pacific settlement putting an end to Italian aggression does not concern Ethiopia alone. It has often been repeated that apart from the war of aggression undertaken by Italy against Ethiopia there is conflict between Italy, which has been declared to have broken the Covenant, and the League of Nations, which is sovereign guarantor of the system of collective security provided for by Governments for the benefit of all members of the League without distinction of strength, colour, or race. In the present circumstances it is the Ethiopian Government's imperative duty to do nothing which can contribute towards creating a precedent prejudicial to any of the States Members of the League of Nations. Each of these States would be entitled to reproach the Ethiopian Government with having deprived it of the means of discussing publicly before the Assembly, which is the sovereign guardian of all clauses of the Covenant, a problem which is vital to the future of the League of Nations and to the security of each of the States Members. Abyssinia therefore asks for a meeting of the Assembly at which "every Member State should be enabled to express its opinion on the true practical significance of the proposals submitted to Ethiopia." M. Benes, President of the Assembly, which stands adjourned, has reserved his decision regarding the Abyssinian request pending a meeting of the Council on Wednesday.