TREATY WITH SOVIET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20481, 5 February 1930, Page 11

TREATY WITH SOVIET.

PROPAGANDA IN BRITAIN. MR. HENDERSON RETICENT. British Wireless. RUGBY, Feb. 3. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Arthur Henderson, answered a number of questions in the House of Commons this afternoon about Communist propaganda in Britain. Mr. Henderson restated the Government's position. It was firmly determined not to be rushed into any hasty judgment in these matters. Should causes of serious complaint arise, the Government would not hesitate to take the House into its confidence, but it must, in the first' instance, be the judge as to any action which might be expedient or necessary to safeguard the interests of the country.

Mr. Henderson was asked if he denied a statement which had appeared in the Isvestia, the organ of the Soviet Government, that it was futile to expect any change in the activity of the Third (Communist) International as a result of the agreement with Britain, and if it was not the fact that from the moment the treaty was signed the terms of it had been flagrantly broken.

Mr. Henderson said he had denied nothing.

Sir Austen Chamberlain, the former Foreign Secretary,, recalled that on a previous occasion Mr. Henderson had said he had made representations to the Soviet Ambassador about propaganda by the Third International, and that Mr. Henderson had then stated that he had not asked for an answer.

Sir Austen asked whether an answer had now .been given by the Soviet Ambassador. Mr. Henderson replied that there were occasions when the public interest demanded silence.