BRITAIN AND THE TREATY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 14 February 1920, Page 5

BRITAIN AND THE TREATY

CRITICISM OF THE GOVERNMENT. BY CABLB-I'RESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGHT LONDON, Feb. 13. In the House of Commons, Mr George Thome (Literal) moved an amendment to the Address-ijt-Reply, re~ gritting that the government had n©4 recognised many impracticabilities in ccnneclior with th c Jfearo Treaty, aac> had not appreciated the grave dangers to the economic position at Home«and abroad by delay in restoring settled conditions in Europe and the *Near East. Sir Donald MacL*an (leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party) quoted General Smuts' message, in which he said the real work of makim^ peace would .only begin after the Peace Treaty was signed, and expressed the opinion that 4he whole experience of the last month had shown how substantially was General Smuts' estimate af the situation. Sir Donald Mac Lean appealed to the Gaviernment to take a long and statesanatdike view, and, further, to fix the amount of the German indemnity. He •deprecated the length of the German Black List. He foreshadowed a year's international litigation in this connection, and he urged thej=e was no hope «of a sound economic future for Europe without free trade all round. A start tfehould be made with new States in Cenatral Europe. Lord Robert Cecil (Coalition Unionist), urged the impracticability of at present undertaking .the revision of the Treaty, although scone of the terms would have to .be .discussed later. Die- I cussing Egypt, the Middle East, Mesopbtamia, and Armenia, he said the situation was serious,.chiefly owing to the delay in dealing with the Turkish question. He deprecated further delay, and suggested the League of Nations should publicly debate the Russian situation. The League should also send two International Missions: t»< .Russia to ascertain what was going on there; secondly, to define provisional boundaries between Russia and the Border States. At question time, Mr Austen Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer) announced the Government had informed the United States that, besides £12,----500,000 voted for the current financial year for relief in Central Europe, the British Government was prepared to contribute a further sum not exceeding half the contribution of the United States, and not exceeding '£10,000,000, which would be used to provide British foodstuffs, raw material, and other essentials, and to pay freight on goods carried in British ships. The Canadian Government intimated its desire to contribute. (Cheers.) The Government was confident other Allied and neutral Governments would co-operate. Continuing, Mr Austen Chamberlain said he doubted whether the participation of the United States in an international conference on the economic situation would be obtainable. He emphasised the gravity of the situation, and the Government was therefore prepared to appoint representatives to a conference. If-so, they would be invited by one of the neutral countries or the League of Nations. On being satisfied that the conference would assume a representative character, the Government should lay down, if they participated, that :they were not prepared to considerably add to their existing liabilities. If the conference recommended any grants of credits the Government could not supply them and could not participate in any scheme involving additions to Britain's liabilities for expenditure in America. (Reßisfcr.) LONDON, Feb. 10. In the House of Lords, Lord Curzon ' said that he believed that a good deal of the Peace Treaty would have to be rewritten and revised' in the course of time. None of its authors claimed that it was sacrosanct. Germany's failure in the fulfilment of "'the Treaty obligations would enable the Allies to aid her in resuming her place among the civilised communities of the world. He expressed anxiety in regard to the outlook in the Near and Middle East, and emphasised the necessity for taking a broad-minded view in the settlement of difficult problems not?.yet decided by the Peace Conference.