EX-ENEMY COUNTRIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19999, 16 July 1928, Page 11

EX-ENEMY COUNTRIES.

PEACE TREATIES AND AFTER DISARMAMENT CLAUSES. LEAGUE AND OBLIGATIONS. (Received July 15, 5.5 p.m.) British Wireless. " RUGBY. July 14. A statement about the present position regarding tho execution of the disarmament clauses in the peaco treaties was made by tho Secretary of Stato for Foreign Affairs, Sir Austen Chamberlain, in the House of Commons. 110 said tho inter-Allied Commission's control, set up in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria respectively had now been withdrawn in all those countries, because it iiad accomplished its task to an extent which tho former allied Governments considered on the whole, to bo satisfactory and adequate. In tho case of all these countries, except Austria, final detailed reports which the Control Commission drew up on the termination of its mission had been communicated to tho Council of tho League of Nations. On the withdrawal of the Commission tho latter, under tho peaco treaties, became responsible for investigating any subsequent breach of tho disarmament clauses. As regarded Austria the Commission's final report had not yet been presented to the Council, because there were certain outstanding points about the conversion of munition factories to industrial uses which were still tho subject of negotiations between tho former allied Governments and the Austrian Government.

In regard to Hungary, in communicating tho Commission's final report to the Council, the former allied Governments drew its attention to certain reservations expressed by the Commission as to the application of the recruiting laws in Hungary. In communicating tho Commission's final report on Bulgaria to the Council the Governments drew its attention to the* frequency of tho non-execution or tho transgression of the new military laws in respect of recruiting and army organisation, although the laws themselves, if loyally observed, were such as to assure the satisfactory application of the treaty stipulations. The attention of the Council was also drawn to tho fact that the Bulgarian Government had not yet fulfilled its undertaking to revise Article 71 of the constitution, which asserts the principle' of universal military service. That was incompatible with tho stipulations of the peace treaties.

As regarded Germany an agreement was reached at Geneva in December, 1926, between the former allied Governments and the German Government under which, after the withdrawal of the Commission's control, certain experts wore attached to the diplomatic missions at Berlin of the former allied Governments with a view to reaching an agreement with the German authorities as to the final execution of certain points which at the date of the withdrawal of the control could not be regarded as having been completely carried out. Considerable progress had been made in the settlement of these outstanding points which concerned, among other things, the reorganisation of the police and the alteration of military establishments.