RECONSTRUCTION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 27 March 1922, Page 5

RECONSTRUCTION

IMPORTANT MEMORANDUM ON GENOA CONFERENCE.

ISSUED BY MR LLOYD GEORGE.

BY CUBIjJ)—IEESB ARSnciATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, Mar. 24. A lengthy memorandum, entitled "Some Considerations for the Peace Conference before they finally draft their terms," which Mr Lloyd George circulated amongst the members of the Conference in March, 1919, has been issued to-day as a White Paper. It states that it is comparatively easy to patch up a peace which might last thirty years, but it is difficult to draw up a peace which will not provoke a fresh struggle.

History has demonstrated that a peace, hailed by a victorious nation as a triumph of diplomatic skill and statesmanship, has proved in the long run to be short-sighted and charged with danger to the victor. You may strip Germany of her colonies, reduce her armaments to a mere police force, and the navy to a fifth-rate Power, but if she feels that she has been unjustly treated she will eventually find a means of extracting retribution from her conquerors.

Arrogance and injustice displayed in the hour of triumph will never be forgotten nor forgiven. We cannot both cripple Germany and make her pay. We must offer terms which a responsible German Government can expect to carry out.

"The greatest danger I see is that Germany may throw in her lot with the Bolsheviks. It is idle to impose a permanent limitation on the armaments of Germany unless we are prepared to impose limitation on ourselves. ' '

Signor Nitti, in his book, "Peaeeless Europe," applauded the memorandum, but complained that Mr Lloyd George signed the treaty violating the principle which he set out.

LONDON, Mar. 25. The Daily Chronicle says that Mr Lloyd George's memorandum is an ideal introduction to the policy of the Genoa Conference. It is a. prescient document, for it shows that if the Versailles Treaty had many great blemishes it was not because Mr Lloyd George did not urge his liberal views on the conference. He had to take less than he wanted, in the hope that the remainder would be added later. The time has now come when his ideas have a chance of being carried through. The Allied experts' conference, after a lengthy debate, recommended the recognition of the Soviet immediately after the Genoa Conference, also that recognition should not be dependent on any probationary period on the part of Russia. The French delegates strongly opposed the recommendations. The conference is now drafting a general treaty for submission to the x Genoa Conference, which includes the creation of a Russian debt commission, which will act as accountant for the creditor nations. TOKIO, Mar. 25. Ambassadors Hayashi and Ishii will head the Japanese delegation to the Genoa Conference. ? ROME, Mar. 25. . The Fascisti threaten to murder every Enssian arriving at Genoa. The Italian Communists threaten to retaliate on the Faseisti.