BRITISH EFFORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 92, 20 April 1939, Page 9

BRITISH EFFORTS

NEGOTIATIONS FOR SECURITY

A SOLEMN PLEDGE

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received April 20. 10.50 a.m.)

RUGBY, April 19.

The Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, in a foreign affairs debate in the House of Lords, dealt with a number of questions, including rumours regarding Spain, the negotiations with Russia, and President Roosevelt's peace move. He also announced that Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Germany, will very soon return to Berlin. Regarding Spain, he said it was important that as full information as possible should be given. "There have been a great number of rumours regarding troop movements," he said. "It ought to be borne in mind that we are now witnessing the demobilisation of the Spanish army, and therefore a great deal of the troop movement that is going on is naturally to be accounted for by that. There has been a special crop of rumours arising from the continued presence of Italian troops in Spain. I have made careful inquiries, and we are perpetually watching the situation and sifting all the information which reaches us, but all I can say is that our information received at the present time shows that too much credence ought not to be paid to these reports." Regarding the negotiations with Moscow, he said: "I do not think there is anything I can say at the present time, beyond that we are engaged in the active pursuit of these negotiations, and I have every hope that recognition of the different points of view will enable us to make that progress we all desire." QUESTION OF THE PACIFIC. To Lord Strabolgi, who asked if the negotiations included the question of the Pacific, Lord Halifax replied that he would not exclude the possibility of the conversations being more widely extended. Speaking of Mr. Roosevelt's message, he said it had already been made clear that Britain found itself in essential agreement with the outlook on international relationships which President Roosevelt had expressed with great clarity of language and with the immense authority at his command, He had no doubt that millions of people in all countries' would trust that Mr. Roosevelt's initiative might have a succesfsul outcome. Regarding Mr. Roosevelt's suggestion about considering the economic side, Britain was prepared to play its part in "that matter. In reference to the general negotiations in progress as a result of recent events in Europe, Lord Halifax said it would be quite fantastic to think that the consultations Britain had been engaged in and the guai-antees it had given covered any aggressive designs on its part. Those efforts did not throttle the legitimate aspirations of other nations, and if his voice could reach as far as he wished it to he would be prepared on behalf of the Government to give the most solemn undertaking that no such idea would ever find a place in British policy.

"If war ever came to the world," he said, "it would, as far as the people of this country are concerned, only be because they would feel there was no other way of defending causes and values which to them are more important than life itself."