LOCARNO PACT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 284, 4 November 1925, Page 8

LOCARNO PACT.

GERMANY’S ATTITUDE. ratification” probable. BERLIN, Nov. 2. The fate of the Locarno pact is uncertain. In the present tangle of party views Herr Luther and Dr. Stresemann are hopeful that the Nationalists will relent and enable the Reichstag to ratify the treaty, but the Socialists are pressing for a dissolution, arguing that they are unwilling to east their votes in support of Luther and ratification, because it virtually means enabling the Nationalists to shed the responsibility attaching to their original pact proposals. While it is generally conceded that the majority of Germans are in favour of ratification, it is felt that a plebiscite thereon would be impracticable. It would be submerged in a welter of domestic side issues. Present indications point to Cabinet signing the treaty on December 1, thus casting on their" opponents the responsibility for flouting world opinion when the Reichstag meets. Dr. Stresemann, in speaking at Dresden, expounded the treaty in terms so unusual as to attract attention. He said that Mr Austen Chamberlain declared to him that the British navy and army would stand at Germany’s disposal if France aggressively overstepped the frontiers.—A. and N./j. cable.