STAFF TALKS

Evening Post, Issue 82, 6 April 1936, Page 9

STAFF TALKS

THE GEE-MAN VIEW

MR. EDEN'S RETORT

United Tress Association—By Electric Tele-

graph—Copyright. (Received April 6, 11 a.m.)

RUGBY, April 4

Several members of the German delegation, including Dr. Dieckhoff, of the German Foreign Office, are leaving London today for Berlin, but Herr yon Ribbentrop, the special envoy of Herr Hitler, with other members of his staff, will remain in England for a few days longer.

Requests for elucidation of certain passages in the German Note of April 1 have been addressed to Herr yon Ribbentrop by the British Foreign Secretary. They are said to cover a wide field, but details are not disclosed.

It was revealed today that in. his interview with Mr. Eden yesterday, Herr yon Ribbentrop suggested that the staff talks must be seriously prejudicial if they took place before the conclusion of new security pacts. Mr. Eden, in reply, reminded Herr yon Ribbentrop that the talks were the British Government's contribution to restore confidence—all , the more necessary since the German Government seemed unwilling to make any substantial contribution for the interim period.

Speaking at Portsmouth last night, the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, Sir Thomas Inskip, said there were a great many things in the German proposals which were attractive, and much which he hoped could be welded to a real measure of agreement between the nations. He was bound to say, however, that Germany could be a little more helpful than she had been up to the present in the process of conciliation. , , NEXT MEETING OF POWERS. The Foreign Secretary has given careful consideration to a request of the French Government, presented by the French charge d'affaires last night, that a meeting of the Locarno Powers should be held next Wednesday either in Brussels or in Paris. Mr. Eden's reply to this request was conveyed to the French charge, d'affaires and to the Belgian Ambassador at the Foreign Office this morning. Mr. Eden pointed out that in view of the fact that the meeting of the Committee of Thirteen to consider the efforts of conciliation in the ItaloAbyssinian dispute was to take place at Geneva, and was to be called for Wednesday, an opportunity for an exchange of views between the Locarno Powers would occur there. In these circumstances the proposed meeting at Brussels or Paris seemed inopportune. FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEBATE. As the result of a ruling given by Mr. Speaker in the House of Commons yesterday that it would be competent for members of Parliament to discuss the subject, which comes under the Civil Estimates, when on Monday the Prime Minister proposes a motion to permit of rediscussion of equal pay for sexes in the Civil Service, upon which the Government was unexpectedly defeated last Wednesday, a debate on foreign affairs will consequently take place on Monday. The suggestion made yesterday by the Opposition Leader, Mr. Attlee, that other League Powers as well as the Locarno signatories should be brought into conference on the- situation resulting from the events iof March 7, and the later German proposals, met with a considerable measure of support in Parliament, and newspapers state that in Monday's debate Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mr. Winston Churchill, among other members, will raise this point. .'.:'.