CONFLICT OF IDEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 131, 4 June 1937, Page 9

CONFLICT OF IDEAS

PACIFIC PACT PLAN

LONG PATH TOWARDS RECONCILIATION

NOTE OF WARNING

FEELING IN LONDON

Tjnited l'rcsa A.isoclatlon—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received June 4, noon.) LONDON, June 3. A nole of warning is being sound-j ed in connection with. Mr. J. A. j Lyons's Pacific pact proposal. Feel- j ing in well-informed quarters here is that a long path towards reconciling j conflicting ideas and ideals must be traversed before anything tangible will appear on the horizon.

The "Morning Post" expresses a view which is widely held in London when it says: "A universal guarantee of nonaggressioh already exists in the Kellogg Pact. A new pact would not give the signatories any greater security unless a real desire for peace existed among them. If such a 'desire existed a pact would scarcely be necessary."

It is emphasised that in the particularly complex relations, in the' Pacific, which is dominated by Japan, it seems extremely unlikely that a new conference would solve the problem, which so far has evaded all efforts of diplomacy. There is certainly a better atmosphere in the Far East, which nothing" is more calculated to spoil thaii a gathering of nations all mutually suspicious and each with its own interests to canvass. MR. ROOSEVELT'S INVITATION. The political writer of the Australian Associated Press agency learns that Mr. K. W. Bingham, American Ambassador to Britain, has conveyed to Mr. Lyons a written invitation from President Roosevelt for Mr. Lyons to visit Washington en route to Australia, but that Mr. Lyons has expressed regret at his inability to accept. It is believed that Mr. Eoosevelt desired to discuss several questions, including Mr. Lyons's Pacific pact proposal. In the meanwhile the Imperial Conference has appointed a sub-committee of experts to examine the Pacific pact proposal. It is gathered that Mr. Savage. Prime Minister of New Zealand, has intimated that New Zealand favours the idea arid is ready to attend a conference.