IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 4 July 1921, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

SURPRISED PREMIERS

AUTOMATIC CONTINUANCE OF ANGLO-JAPANESE TREATY.

FOREIGN OFFICE CRITICISED:

BY CABL&—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

(Received. July 4, 9.10 a.m.)

LONDON, July 1. Tlie Lord Chancellor's statement that the Anglo-Japanese I'reaty, unless denounced, continues automatically came as a bombshell, and the Foreign Office has been criticised tor permitting the conference fto remain in ignorance, .while speeches on the subject were made in the belief that the renewal was a matter of urgncy not brooking delay. Had the Dominions been frankly informed ibefore the departure of their Prime Ministers there would have been saved a vast amount of public and) political press misunderstanding, speculation and heartburning all over the world. The tardy recognition of the true, position modifies the whole character of the conference. The fact that the treaty does not need renewal and cannot immediately be annulled removes the Premiers', most anxious "preoccupations. Iri a year's time the whole matter may he viewed from a totally different standpoint. Important questions remain for the conference, but the Chancellor's discovery alters the whole angle of the Dominions' attitude towards the larges^' in-'I iernational problem.