RUSSIA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 August 1924, Page 5

RUSSIA

TREATIES WITH BRITAIN. TO BE SIGNED. VITAL QUESTIONS RESERVED. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT LONDON, Aug. 7. Official—The Anglo-Russian treaties will be signed on Friday. The diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph describes the Russian Treaty as how to produce an agreement which is not really an agreement, because all vital questions are reserved. The treaty, no doubt, will help Mr MacDonald to save his face, but is unworthy of the name of a treaty.

The City editor states that nobody in the city pretends to understand the agreement. It is universally regarded as a desperate, attempt on Mr MacDonald’s part to fulfil his election pledges and placate his Communist supporters. The general view is that a loan to the Soviet is impossible unless guaranteed by the British Government. Even then it is not believed that Parliament would sanction it without a complete change in Soviet principles.

LONDON, Aug. 8. The Daily Express is asking: Has Mr MacDonald dropped monarchy in order to please the Soviet? The paper draws attention to the fact that, whereas treaties were formerly made in the name of the King, the Russian Treaty is between “Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the one hand and the Soviet and the Socialist Republics. ’ ’

This is contrasted with the Austrian agreement, signed on May 22, between “His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond, the Emperor of India, and the Federal President of the Republic of Austria. ” i

The Daily Express asks: Where is the British Empire in the Russian Treaty? The paper recalls the speech of«M. Radoposky in 1923, in which he said the collapse and dismemberment of the British Empire was merely a question of time. Finally the Daily Express suggests an amendment in the draft before signature.