LONDON CONFERENCE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 January 1925, Page 5

LONDON CONFERENCE

ATTITUDE OF DOMINIONS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, Jan. 2. The diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says it is no secret that the sounding of the Dominions in reference to the proposed Imperial Conference did not prove encouraging. While officially the distaste for a conference is based on the difficulties of Prime Ministers in leaving the Dominions,. it is not concealed in some quarters that a stronger reason for not favouring the conference is the feeling that protocols and pacts, involving possibly war commitments, will be regarded as repugnant to the spirit and letter of the Dominion’s constitutions.

This increases the importance of the report from Brussels that Britain is considering some form of security guarantee to Belgium, to which it is believed the Dominions will not offer opposition, as it will only entail the renewal of Britain’s traditional guarantee, though it is a moot point whether the Dominions will concur-in the conclusion of a definite military engagement, even with Belgium. It should be pointed out that the Franco-Belgian pact, unlike the protocol, does not encroach upon any Parliamentary sovereignty, but leaves the Parliaments to decide on action in the. event of a crisis. The British guarantee to Belgium will benefit France almost equally as much as a direct guarantee to France by restricting the German front of attack.