RESIGNATIONS THREATENED BY FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7061, 8 November 1929, Page 5

RESIGNATIONS THREATENED BY FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

Blunt Warning to MacDonald

SNOWDEN’S PATRIOTISM AND COURAGE PRAISED

Australian Press Assn.—United Service,

Received Thursday, 7 p.m,

LONDON, Nov. 7,

The Daily News re-publishes an article contributed by “Pertinax” to the Echo de Paris, following the receipt of a private letter from the United States, confirming the “revelations ” published a few days ago to the effect that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, while in the United States, considered making concessions in connection with the freedom of the seas, which some members of his Cabinet, including Mr. Philip Snowden, regarded with such alarm that there was a possibility of two resignations.

It was. stated the proposals would, in Mr. Snowden’* opinion, have impaired British naval efficiency in the Pacific, also that Mr. MacDonald was ready to declare food ships inviolate in wartime, thus rendering a blockade impossible. “Pertinax,” in his article, goes further and says that Mr. MacDonald, intoxicated by his United States reception, allowed President Hoover not only to seek a freedom of the seas agreement but to dismantle and suppress Canadian naval bases. “Pertinax" refers to Mr. Snowden as bluntly warning Mr. MacDonald over the Atlantic telephone • and threatening to resign. The writer commends Mr. Snowden’s patriotism and courage and predicts that Mr. MacDonald will not tell the House of Commons about the incident.