POWERS AND TANGIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19957, 28 May 1928, Page 9

POWERS AND TANGIER.

HOPES OF AGREEMENT. GOOD WORK BY EXPERTS. British Wireless. RUGBY. May 25. A further stage has been successfully completed in the negotiations concerning Tangier, in which British, French, Italian and Spanish experts are engaged in Paris. They have finished. their examination of tlie Italian desiderata relating to the Tangier Statute and have reached a unanimous agreement. Th experts are now considering certain questions affecting the smooth working of the statute which have arisen during the conversations. It isi expected that in a few days a definite agreement will have been reached which will be submitted for the consideration of the four Powers concerned. The French and Spanish Ambassadors called at the British Foreign Office on March 5 to inform Sir William Tyrrell, ■ Permanent Under-Secretary of State, that an agreement had been concluded between their respective Governments in regard to the application of the Tangier Statute of 1923. This agreement consisted essentially of an acceptance by Spain of the continuation of the international regime and the abandonment of her earlier demand for a purely Spanish administration. In return for this France undertook to support the claims of Spain to certain concessions, notably the institution of Spanish police control in the Tangier zone The signature of this agreement marked the close of the first long-drawn-out negotiations between France and Spain in which the British Government played the part of mediator. The next stage was the conference at Paris between representatives of the British, French, Italian and Spanish Governments with the object of establishing the conditions on which Italy, will share in the administration of Tangier. The British official attitude toward the Tangier question has been governed throughout by the desire that the international status of this port should remain unaltered. Another stage will remain to be surmounted even when the Conference of Four has completed its labours. Any decision which the four Governments may take as to any adjustment of the present status will require the approval of the other States—with the exception, of course, of Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Russia—which signed the-. Algeciras Agreement of 1906. But this is a jroblem for the future.