ADHERENCE BY ALL?

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

ADHERENCE BY ALL?

MUTUAL AID PLAN

QUESTIONS IN COMMONS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received April 20, 11.30 a.m.)

RUGBY, April 19

The Prime Minister was asked in the House of Commons by Mr. G. L. M. Mander (Liberal) if in connection with the mutual aid arrangements with other countries it was proposed that the obligations should be reciprocal and that the arrangements should be open to the adherence of all countries

The Premier replied:—"As I informed Mr. Attlee yesterday, the Government is still in consultation with the other interested Governments, and I am not yet in a position to add anything to my recent statements."

Mr. Mandei* suggested that if it were made clear that the arrangements were open to all countries which were willing to give guarantees and to accept the obligations, that would go a long way to discount German propaganda that these purely defensive arrangements constituted encirclement.

Mr. Chambeiiain was understood to reply that he feared that those who had accepted propagandist allegations of that kind would not be convinced of their mistake by the theoretical consideration Mr. Mander had in mind.

The Premier answered in the affirmative another question in which he was asked if the Government would bear in mind the desirability of including China and other Far Eastern countries in any combination of Governments for the purpose of resisting aggression.