LAUSANNE AGREEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 9

LAUSANNE AGREEMENT.

STATEMENT FOR COMMONS.

MR. MacDONALD TO SPEAK.

CHURCHILL'S CRITICISMS.

GERMANS AND WAR DAMAGE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received July 12, 7.5 p.m.)' LONDON. July 11. It is understood that the British Cabinet will consider tho Lausanne agreement at its meeting to-morrow morning. The Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, did not attend Parliament this afternoon but spent a comparatively restful day at Downing Street, in the course of which he saw his doctor and several of his Cabinet colleagues, with whom lie discussed aspects of tho Lausanne settlement and business relating to the conference at Ottawa, to attend which Mr. Baldwin and several other Ministers are to leave London on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister is assured of an extremely cordial welcome when he attends tho House of Commo/is to-morrow. His statement on Lausanno is keenly awaited, and it is anticipated that he will deal in some detail with certain points upon which there has been somo speculation, much of it ill-informed, and upon the manner in which tho settlement is related to tho war debts issue. Secret Pact Story Denied. Mr. Mac Donald probably will take occasion to deny the published statement, for which there is no foundation, that Britain, France and Italy reached an agreement upon a " united front" in any future debt negotiations with the United States. He will also make it quite clear that the conference has left the signatories quite free of any " secret agreements."

In the course of the debate in the House to-day o.n the Consolidated Fund Appropriation Bill, Mr. Winston Churchill said he could not join in the general rejoicing over Lausanne. Anything which removed the friction between France and Germany was good, but Germany ought, above all, to be felicitated. Within 15 years of the war she was virtually free from the burden of repairing the awful injuries she had inflicted upon her neighbours. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, confessed himself sorely tempted to anticipate Mr. Mac Donald's statement on Lausanne when he was confronted with this criticism by Mr. Churchill.

Mr. Chamberlain, however, decided to allow most of Mr. Churchill's remarks to await an answer by the Prime Minister, although in regard to one comment upon thß effect of the agreement in America, the Chancellor pointed out that after all, the British Ministers had been in touch at Lausanne not only with European representatives but also with those of the United States. Labour Welcomes the Agreement.

The Chancellor asked the House to believe that in this rare and delicate situation the Government had no reason to think tlie course it had taken was one which would lead to any of the unfortunate results which Mr. Churchill had anticipated earlier in the debate.

The Lausanne settlement had been most cordially welcomed from the Opposition benches.

Sir Stafford Cripps. (Labour —Bristol East), speaking on the Consolidated Fund Bill, said the Labour party wholeheartedly supported the steps taken at Lausanne, for it had always urged the policy that reparation was suicidal madness. Official circles declare that the Lausanne Treaty was not accompanied by secret agreements. The Powers naturally feel the common bond, but this does not imply even the beginning of an arrangememt to combine in the negotiations with America.

RESULT APPROVED.

FRANCE AND GERMANY.

DECISIONS OF CABINETS. LONDON, July 11. A message from Berlin says the German Cabinet unanimously approved the work of the German delegation at Lausanne. The Chancellor, Herr von declares that the Government will immediately take measures to transmit the result of the agreement to German trade and industry. A despatch from Paris says the French Cabinet approved M. Herriot's work at the conference.