SECURITY PACT

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 August 1925, Page 5

SECURITY PACT

IMPORTANT CONFERENCE. ANGLO-FRENCH MINI STEP S. MEET AT LONDON. by cable-press association-copyright LONDON, Aug. 11. After a cordial audience with the King at Buckingham Palace, M. Briand, accompanied by M. Me aria a, proceeded to the Foreign Office. He entered b\* the buck entrance, disappointing a score l of press photogiapheis who were in the front of the building. M. Berthelot, M. Fromageo. Air. Chamberlain, Sir 'William Tyie.l and Sir Cecil Hurst were awaiting them in Mr. Chamberlain’s room. Conversations with regard to the reply to the latest German Note on the security pact began immediately. Reuter.

I’KACF OF I-XltOi’E

FRENCH DRAFT MEMORANDUM

LONDON, Aug. 11. According to an account of yesterday’s conversations between Air Austen

Chamberlain (British Foreign Minister) and Al. Briand (French Foreign Minister) on the security pact, given by the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, AI. Briand’s draft of the reply to Germany was examined sentence by sentence. Air. Chamberlain and his lieutenants were decidedly pleased with the general tenor of the document, which is short and conciliatory and calculated to terminate the era of formal memoranda. It was inevitable that certai n remarks contained in t'he German Note should b e rebutted, such as the- possibility of coercive sanctions and the possibility of modifications in the occupation legime. Regarding outstanding points, name, ly, treaty revision, arbitration treaties between * German and the Eastern neighbours, and independent sanctions, these are touched upon rather than discussed, the idea, being that- they will .be more .appropriately thrashed out at a conference of German and Allied Ministers or at a full international conference after the League Assembly. French circles, ’however, last night discounted the idea, of a, meeting between Herr Von Stresemann (German Foreign Alinister) and Allied statesmen at Gen. era, or the idea or Germany’s admission to the League in September. The correspondent proceeds to discuss the tentative draft of the pact which AL Briand submitted to Air. Chamberlain. Its underlying conception recalls the Belgian Neutrality Treaty of 1839 and the_ Luxemburg!! Neutrality Treaty of 18G7. There is a length pieamble/in the course of which Britain, France, Belgium and Germany solemnly declare that they will for the sake of European peace respect the others’ existing frontiers. The chief section relates the circumstances in which the guarantees would operate. The French would like to establish a series of flagrant cases in * which the guarantee would operate, as it were, automatically, whereas the British Government would reserve the right to intervene only in such a flagrant case as an armed invasion by

either side, also reserving the right to judge whether the case was flagrant or not. Thev also questioned whether in anv decision involving war a specific

urior conference will he made to the British Parliament and the Dominions.

The draft of the pact and the arbitration treaties were frequently referred to yesterday, hut no decision was taken. Diveigencies of opinion a;c still substantial. The d’p'omatic correspondent of the Daily Chronicle expresses the opinion that once an agreement is clinched regarding the reply this morning, other documents will lie discussed, but it is probable they will only be fully debated at a later stage. A communique issued at the conclusion of to-dav’s conference states that the conversations aie proceeding satis_ facdori.lv. Air. Chamberlain gave a banquet to Ar. Briand and his colleagues, the American and Allied ambassadors being present.