DEFENCE OF EMPIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1939, Page 7

DEFENCE OF EMPIRE

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS CONFERENCE IN NEW ZEALAND [BY, CABLE—PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.] CANBERRA, Marell 8. The Prime Minister (Mr. J. A. Lyons) declines to comment on a cable message from London, published by the Sydney “Sun” to-day, to the effect that a defence conference of representatives of New Zealand, Australia, and Britain, will be held in New Zealand, probably late in March. The details were to have been announced simultaneously by the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr.- Savage) and Mr. Lyons. . However, after a radio telephone talk with Mr. Savage, Mr. Lyons said Mr. Savage was not yet ready to make a statement. Mr. Lyons, therefore, refuged to make it. Air-Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore, of the British Air Mission,, stated today, that he had not received official advice of the'proposed conference, but before he left London for Australia, there was a suggestion that such a conference might be held, and that he might be required to attend it. PRESS COMMENT. SYDNEY, March 9. The “Herald” says that the proposals for a conference of defence experts from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, to discuss cohimon defence problems, will undoubtedly be accepted by Australia. The “Daily Telegraph” says that Mr. Lyons will attend ihe conference.

WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE. PARIS, March 8. The Socialist group in the Chamber of Deputies will shortly table a resolution calling for an international peace conference open to all nations. It is proposed that the conference should attempt, on the basis of a progressive reduction in armaments, to find a solution leading to close and lasting collaboration among all peoples. The resolution states that the conference would open under more favourable conditions if foreign troops were first withdrawn - fiw>m Spain. U.S. NEUTRALITY ACT. WASHINGTON, March 8. “The foreign policy of the United States is designdff not only to preserve peace in the Western Hemisphere, but to make some contribution to the preservation of peace in other parts of the world,” said the Democrat leader, Senator Alben W. Barkley (Kentucky), in a two-hour speech in the Senate, in which he defended the Administration in its handling of foreign relations. Mr. Barkley declared that the Neutrality Act had not tended to preserve the world’s peace. This view was confirmed later by Mr. Roosevelt at a Press conference. The two statements, coming so closely together, are believed to indicate that the Administration will soon seek the repeal or revision of the Act.