PACT TO RENOUNCE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19916, 9 April 1928, Page 9

PACT TO RENOUNCE WAR.

FRANCO-AMERICAN PLANyI . 1 OTHER POWERS CONSULTED. CORRESPONDENCE SUBMITTED. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyrifiht. (Received April 8, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Sun. WASHINGTON. April 1 The Governments o! France and the United States have agreed to submit immediately their correspondence on the proposals for a •multilateral treaty renouncing war to Britain, Germany Italy ami Japan. The Secretary of State, Mr. F. B. Kellogg, says ho is experiencing difficulty in clearing up several vague points in the last.. French Note regarding the proposed ti'eaty. Ho emphatically denies reports which have been published to the •.effect that m his recent conversations with the French • Ambassador, M. Paul Claude 1, he expressed general approval of tlie French reservations as such, or that M. Claudel advanced them merely as suggestions for strengthening the projected treaty. Further discussions with M. Claudel may clarify the ambiguity. In that case,, and if a general agreement on the conditions can be reached another American Note would not be necessary. Instead the United States and France had decided formally to present to Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan the correspondence which had passed between them, accompanied by an invitation to join them in negotiating a treaty. A cablegram from Washington on March 31 stated: The text of the latest Note received by the State Department from Franco is published to-day. It signifies a conditional acceptance by France of Mr. Kellogg's proposal for a multilateral treaty for the outlawry of war, but the Note contains an important reservation concerning the obligations of France and other nations under the covenant of the League of Nations. This reservation is considered in Washington as compromising Mr. Kellogg's plan for the renunciation of war. France asserts her readiness to submit to the British, Italian, German and Japanese Governments all Franco-American antiwar correspohdence, and also the draft of a general treaty pledging the signatories not to resort to war. The Note abandons the previous insistence of France that the anti-war pledge should be restricted to wars of. aggression. Three points are outlined which France says are necessary if an agreement is to be reached. They are:—(l) The treaty to be accessible to all Governments in the world and to come into force only after its universal acceptance, unless the Powers who sign it should agree'upon it coming into force despite certain abstentions. (2) If one signatory should fail to keep its .word the other signatories shall automatically be released from their engagements with respect to the offending State. (3 That the renunciation of war to be proclaimed shall not deprive the signatories of their , legitimate rights of defence.