"MOST ENCOURAGING."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 April 1937, Page 7

"MOST ENCOURAGING."

BELGIAN TALKS HELP EUROPEAN PEACE. PROMISE OF GOOD RESULTS. (British Official Wireless). RUGBY, April 28. British newspapers without exception share the view that the Foreign Secretary's visit to Brussels was as valuable as it was cordial and that the conversations Mr Eden had there promise good results for the future of Europe. These contacts were not an occasion for negotiation, but served to enable the statesmen to develop in outline various constructive ideas for turning, in the words of The Times, '' the will to closer international collaboration, wherever it exists, to good account in thb coming months." One point that has evidently created a very favourablft impression in Great Britain is the unquestionable determination of the Belgian Government to remain faithful to the League Covenant —a matter that has been placed, beyond all doubt. The hope is expressed that the conversations will prove a hopeful prelude to wider European negotiations in the near future and that these will mark the beginning of a new period o± international co-operation. "Most Encouraging."

The News-Chronicle describes Mr Eden's visit.to Brussels as "One of the most' satisfactory and encouraging visits abroad that the Foreign Secretary has ever made." The Times thinks that after a further period of detailed study by the British and Belgian Foreign Offices, initiative which would base itself on a new programme of negotiation may be expected for the general purpose of creating security between Belgium and her great neighbours in "the East and the West. The Manchester Guardian says that the insistence with which the Belgian Ministers emphasised the determination of their Government to remain faithful to the League was thoroughly appreciated by Mr Eden. The Daily Telegraph thinks that the conversations are likely to be carried a stage further when Mr Eden, M. Delbos (France), M. Spaak (Belgium), and other Foreign Ministers meet at Geneva for the special meeting fixed for the last week of next mO-nth.

BELGIUM AND LOCARNO. WHY RELEASE WAS GRANTED. (British Official Wireless). RUGBY, April 28. Questioned in the House of Commons on the negotiations preceding the recent joint Note to the Belgian Government from the British and French Governments, the Foreign Secretary recalled the terms of the Note and proceeded: "The preparatory exchange of views which has been taking place recently between the • signatories of the Treaty of Locarno with a view to the negotiation of a new Western European security pact has shown that in any new treaty Belgium would wish not to give guarantees to other States and that the other four Governments concerned in the negotiations would also be prepared to agree that Belgium should not undertake to guarantee other States in a new treaty. In view, therefore, of the delay experienced in negotiating a new treaty, it was decided, in order to meet the wishes of the Belgian Government, to give effect to their wish to be released in advance from their remaining obligations undeT the Locarno Treaty and the arrangements of March 19, 1936. «'I should like to add tkat the present communications in no way affect the obligations of any other country but Belgium." In another reply Mr Eden said that staff conversations to facilitate the Franco-British guarantees to Belgium were not contemplated.