LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 256, 26 September 1933, Page 7

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SELECTED DISCUSSION OF COST. BRITAIN ’AND DOMINIONS. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 26, 9.35 a.m. GENEVA, Sept. 25. Mr Charles Theodore Te Water, South Africa, was elected President of the Assembly by 53 votes to 30. Britain has invited the Dominions’ delegates to meet to discuss League costs with a view to raising a Budget Commission and sponsoring the question of added costs of subscriptions from countries off gold. HISTORIC SURPRISE. SOUTH AFRICAN’S ELECTION. Received Septemlier 26, 12.15 p.m. GENEVxY, Sept. 25. The election of Mr Te Water to the presidency was the biggest surprise in the history of Assembly openings. It was the first • time the voting went totally against all expectations. Mr Te Water’s election lias nonplussed tlie secretariat, because, despite English being the official language with French, all the President’s instructions were in French, necessitating an immediate translation. The incoming President had no speech prepared. The election means that South Africa no longer contemplates opposing Australia on the Council. DISARMAMENT INTEREST. GERMANY’S POSITION STATED. DELEGATES SEEK ISOLATION. Received September 26, 12.25 p.m. GENEVA, Sept. 25. Apart from the arrival of Dr Goebbels with a bodyguard of fifteen stalwarts, the opening of the Assembly was devoid of incident. The Germans and Austrians occupy the front row. Japan, for the first time since the League was formed, has not sent a delegation and is represented by a single observer. With the object of being remote from the centre of things, the Germans changed their hotel and are staying at the far end of Geneva, The hotel is guarded day and night by Swiss police in addition to the delegation’s own plain clothes bodyguard. The Austrian Chancellor, Dr Dollfuss, is also strongly guarded. The formation of his new Ministry necessitates his return to Vienna on Thursday. Mr Te Water’s election was mainly due to the Mexican candidates’ inability to speak English or French. Moreover, the Mexicans threatened to leave the League if they were not elected to one of the non-permanent seats on the Council, which annoyed several Powers. The‘Assembly opened listlessly and interest centres on the disarmament discussions. Sir John Simon and Captain R. A. Eden had a long meeting with the Dominion delegates, which was almost entirely devoted to disarmament.

The Sun Service learns that Sir John Simon declared himself to be more_ optimistic than for a considerable time. The French were prepared for a much greater advance tlnyi was expected, informing him that any convention was better than none because of the failure to loosen the flood of rearmament. Sir John Simon pointed out that Germany wanted a convention, but Baron von Neurath insisted that it must be a convention to which Germany could subscribe, because she wanted to honestly fulfil it. Sir John Simon told the Dominion delegates that tho improved FrenchItalian situation was an important augury. PEACE DETERMINATION SECURING AN UNDERSTANDING. APPEASEMENT OF DIFFERENCES. (British Official Wireless.) Received September 26, 11.10 a.m. RUGBY, Sept. 25. When the fourteenth meeting of the League Assembly opened at Geneva under the presidency of the Norwegian Premier, Mr Ludwig Mowinckel, in a brief speech, the new President, Mr Te Water, said that South Africa had known war and experienced all its bitterness, but in the latter days peace had obliterated the past and he offered her example to some of the greater nations. “I shall bring to my task the valuable experience of the young nations that comprise the British Commonwealth. There are no nations more determined to keep tho peace than that group,” he said. Mr Mowinckel reviewed tho world outlook and expressed keen regret that since the Great War little progress had been made toward securing a better understanding between the peoples. On the contrary, the fear of the possibility of war was ever hanging as a constant menace over the future of the nations. It was natural, but wholly unfair, to blame the League and it was the primary duty of League members to strengthen to credit of the League in the eyes of the world. Referring to the World Economic Conference and the Disarmament Conference, he said that if the great nations came to such conferences, with views that were difficult to reconcile it might he said in advance that a favourable result could not be reached, even if all the other Powers were agreed. He expressed hope in the Four Power Pact as an instrument for appeasing tlie Franco-Germ an differences and possibly bringing understanding and even friendship in a torn and divided Europe. GERMAN ARMAMENTS. AUSTRIA’S DEFENSIVE ATTITUDE. GENEVA, Sept. 25 The chief event on Sunday was the visit of Dr. Dollfuss to Sir John Simon to discuss Germany’s claim for equality of armaments. Afterwards Dr. Dollfuss said that Austria would take a purely defensive attitude toward any German questions raised at the Assembly. He added: “We do not intend to raise the question of the treatment of Jews.” AMERICAN POLICY. PROGRESS WITH OTHERS. WASHINGTON, Sept. 25. The Secretary of _ State, Mr Cordell Hull, has re-enunciated _ the United States arms policy as providing freedom from sanctions but a willingness to cooperate against arms treaty violaters. Mr Hull stated that tho United States was standing fast upon its declared willingness to go as far as other States toward real disarmament, even to bring armies down to the basis of domestic police forces. It was learned that the United

States would not be averse to an extension of the supervisory powers . of the Permanent Disarmament Commission to keep a constant check upon new reductions when and if made.