TENSION IN LITHUANIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 11

TENSION IN LITHUANIA.

DANGEROUS SITUATION. APPEAL MADE TO LEAGUE. POLAND SEEKS PEACE. [ANXIETY FELT IN BRITAIN. 'ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT. / * By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (British Official Wireless.) (Keoeived November 29. 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. RUGBY, Nov. CB. In the House of Commons to-day the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Austen Chamberlain, was asked whether his attention had been called to the grave position that existed between Poland and Lithuania. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, "Mr. G. T. Loeker-Lampson, who replied, said : "The Government has watched with grave anxiety the growing tension between Poland and Lithuania. It is, however. relieved by the fact that the Council of the League of Nations is about to examine this question at Geneva, and it trusts a settlement may result which will restore friendly relations between the two States British Government's *Hint. "The Government has received no confirmation of the alarmist rumours which have appeared in the press, and is confident that neither Poland nor Lithuania •will he so unwise as to take any rash action while the deliberations of the League are pending. The Polish Government has indeed just assured the Powers represented on the Council of the League that Poland has no designs against the political independence and territorial integrity of Lithuania, and that the Government only desires the restoration of normal relation's and the termination by Lithuania of the state of war which she fe maintaining against Poland." The view of the British newspapers generally is, that although the unsatisfactory relations which have existed for some time between Poland and Lithuania have undoubtedly developed into a situation of some tension, yet, in spite of undoubted danglers, many of the reports received exaggerate the state of affairs. The Riga correspondent of the Times says the reports of disorders in Lithuania are not confirmed, but the situation is dangerous. All parties are exhorting the Premier, M. Valdemaras to form a Coalition Government, which he is unlikely to do before the League of Nations meets. The President, M. A. Smetona, told officers who were seeking the coalition rot to meddle in politics. M. Yaldemaraii replied in similar terms, and after this <!0 officers were arrested. League Covflnant Invoked. The League Council, which will meet Monday, will take up the consideration ot the issues involved. The Lithuanian Government recently invoked Article XI. of the Covenant of the League, in reference/ to Poland's actions during the dispute concerning the schools last month. Now the Polish Government lias decided to direct the attention of the League Council to the continuance of the socalled "state of war" between Lithuania and Poland, n-v condition of affairs which, it says, precludes the existence of normal diplomatic relations between two members of the League. The Polish Government will request the League to use its influence to end this abnormal state of affairs. In the meantime, the Polish Government. us a means of dispersing the current rumours, has explicitly declared that it has no intention of infringing the territorial independence of Lithuania, and that it requires only the establishment of friendly relations letween the two countries. The British preus, in this connection, urges upon the Governments concerned the advisability of maintaining discretion, both in action and in word, as the situation will be fully examined shortly. APPEAL TO GENEVA. POSITION OF GERMANY. READY TO CO-OPERATE. (Received November 29, 8.5 p.m.) A. and E.Z. BERLIN. Nov, 28. The attitude of the German Government regarding the dispute between Poland and Lithuania is that it is prepared to co-operate to the utmost with the other Powers to effect a settlement, but it docs not intend to take the initiative in securing the intervention of the League of Nations on the basis of rumours which have been repeatedlj . denied by Poland. SOVIET PLOT FAILS. "SAVIOURS OF EUROPE." NO SUPPORT FOR POSE. Bun. ; LONDON, Nov. 28. The Berlin correspondent of the Weekly Dispatch says that on the eve of the conference at Geneva the Soviet has been trying to get on the European political stage in the role of a guardian of peace, therefore it invented a story of the danger of war. from which the Soviet alone would bo able to save Europe. The difficulties existing between Lithuania and Poland since 1023, when the Council of Ambassadors gave Vilna to Poland, were exploited by the Soviet s propaganda agents, who for days were engaged in engineering a preliminary newspaper campaign. This culminated in the presentation of the Soviet's Note to Warsaw, written by Tchitcherin, the cleverest intriguer in Europe, and Litvinoff's visit to Herr Stresemann, German Foreign Minister, in an attempt, to bolster 'up a grotesque war scare. Herr Stresemann's organ, the Tagliache Rundschau, denies that the German Cabinet even discussed Litvinoff's visit, and points out that Marshal Pilsudski, Prime Minister of Poland, would not have gone almost ostentatiously to Vilna if Poland was actually plotting an attack on Lithuania. Furthermore, the paper denies that Germany intends to make representations to Kovno or Warsaw. Thus the Bolsheviks have received no encouragement from Berlin to pose as the saviours of Europe from an imaginary war, and then to circulate their hat to a grateful audience for badly-needed > money. /]