ONLY PRELIMINARY DRAFTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 258, 29 September 1945, Page 5

ONLY PRELIMINARY DRAFTS

FOREIGN MINISTERS' TREATIES (Rec, 12.30 p.m.) OTTAWA, Sept. 28. The Prime Minister (Mr Mackenzie King) told the House of Commons that the Canadian Government understood that any draft treaty . emanating from the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in London would be of a preliminary character. The Canadian and other United Nations Governments would be given an opportunity to consider and discuss ' the treaties before they took final form. Mr Mackenzie King announced that he would be leaving next week, at Mr Attlee's invitation, for an extended visit to Britain and Western Europe. He added that the war-time arrangements by which Canada and other smaller countries accepted the decisions of the big States would not do for the peace settlements. Mr Mackenzie King's announcement of his visit to Europe was greeted with applause on ail sides of the House, indicating the general anxiety at the course that the Foreign Ministers' Conference has taken. The Prinie Minister said that white the questions' of boundaries, colonial administration and disarmament were important, many of them were of less consequence than the questions of the attitudes and objectives. The Canadian interest in the Foreign Ministers' Conference did not lie in the detailed discussion on particular issues, hut in concern for the peaceful settlement of outstanding differences and for consolidating the general organisation for the maintenance of international security. He added private settlements between the Great Powers on issues of general interest to all were necessary in wartime, but, if continued, they would be a source of difficulty, even danger. This particular wartime pattern must not be perpetuated in framing the peace settlement.