DOUBT REMOVED

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 20, 24 January 1936, Page 10

DOUBT REMOVED

MUTUAL ASSISTANCE

IN EVENT OF ITALIAN ATTACK

LEAGUE AND SANCTIONS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received January 24, 1.30, p.m.)

RUGBY, January 23.

It is hoped in London that publication at Geneva of the Memorandum of the. Foreign Secretary (Mr. Anthony Eden) on the subject of assurances of mutual assistance which have been exchanged between Great Britain and several Mediterranean Powers in connection with the application of Article 16 of the League Covenant, and the issue of letters from the French, Yugoslav, Czechoslovak. Greek, and Turkish delegations confirming the British explanations, will have the effect of finally disposing of various rumours and misinterpretations which have received currency in the past few weeks. The assurances with which the Rumanian Government has also associated itself, arise out of, and do not go beyond, the obligations imposed by Paragraph 3 of Article 16. As the French Note emphasises, "They cannot therefore give rise to any surprise or misunderstanding on the part of international opinion." In both the British Memorandum and French Note it is made clear that the technical conversations in which j military, naval, and air experts have taken part following reaffirmalion of political accord in the interpretation of the Covenant have been confined entirely to the situation arising from the possibility of Italian attack on a Power engaged in applying sanctions according to the League's decision.

The 'effect 'of the mutual assurances which have now been made public at Geneva is to p^ace it beyond doubt that in the event of attack by Italy on any of the seven League States concerned because of that State's paricipation in League sanctions the others would come to the assistance of the State attacked.

The impression in well-informed quarters is that the result of the ceretain knowledge that in the present circumstances the Covenant obligations for . mutual, assistance will be fully honoured, can only be good as relieving tension and increasing confidence.