RESULTS OF LAUSANNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21234, 14 July 1932, Page 11

RESULTS OF LAUSANNE.

MENACE REMOVED.

MR. MacDONALD'S REVIEW.

EVILS OF REPARATIONS.

WAK DEBTS BURDEN.

AMERICA'S ATTITUDE.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. British Wireless. RUGBY, July 12.

Both the' floor and the galleries in the House of Commons were full when the Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, made his statement on the proceedings at Lausanne. Mr. Mac Donald began by claiming that the conference and its results could lead to a settlement of those questions of reparations which lay somewhere about the root, of every economic trouble that had overtaken the world since the war, which had falsified national budgets and placed in' the centre of Europe a country whose financial position was a menace to the whole world. While reparations lasted there could be no complete industrial recovery.

There had been many plans and conferences to deal with these economic follies —reparations —and, as the result of Lausanne, lie hoped they had heard the last of them. Various Contractural Obligations. . An initial difficulty at the conference was that Germany paid reparations and reparations only, whereas France, Britain and others paid, and also received, war debts, and America received debts. Each of those three groups quite properly refused to treat its contractural obligations bo as to mix itself up with the position of any of the others. Herr von Papen, the German Chancellor, had stoutly declined throughout to admit that war debts were any affair of .his, while Washington said it could not consider war debts from the point of view of its debtors, who were recipients of reparations. Fortunately, the gist of the speeches

and other expressions of American public opinion amounted to this: "Let Europe decide on the best practical settlement for itself, let it publish its views and we shall consider reasonably what is the part which America, in equity, can play." Gentlemen's Agreement Explained. Much had been written about a "gentlemen's agreement," said Mr. Mac Donald. Apparently that arose out of the reply he had made at last Friday's plenary session to a question put to him by the German Chancellor as to whether, if their plan failed, the Germans would be guaranteed that a conference would follow. He had replied that it, certainly would.^ Instead of allowing Germany to fall back on the Young Plan they agreed that they would, in such an event, take up the matter again and see if some other method was available. They, however, were convinced that their plan would not fall through. The substance of the '.'gentlemen's agreement" had been publicly announced on Friday. Without it the British delegates would have been in a difficult position. When the Italian and French representatives said, "You will get your agreement if you now excuse us all our debts," the British delegation replied, "You must wait and see." , , "The British Government is not out to make any profit on anything it receives from reparations and war debts, and that rule will hold," Mr. Mac Donald continued. "In dealing with this matter in respect to America, we are touching a very tender spot. No one has the right to blame America for taking up her attitude. Ultimatum to United States. "Had we all got together our wo/k would have been simplified, but America felt that she had to be consistent, and I for one, although America never uttered a pledge or in any way indicated how far she was prepared to meet us, believe that there is no nation in the world more ready to lend a hand in straightening out the entanglements and troubles with which we are now surrounded than America and her people.

"In view of the grievous results likely to follow upon any suggestion that Europe had combined simply to present something in the nature of an ultimatum to the United States, I wish to make it perfectly clear that all Lausanne did was to straighten out the internal difficulties of Europe and to agree on proposals which the nations there represented believed to be essential," said Mr. Mac Donald. They had not agreed merely on another scaling down in reparations. Britain wanted cancellation all round of reparations, war debts, etc. That could not be obtained, but they got the delegates to agree to ope capital and final payment.

After many arguments they had settled on a three vears' complete moratorium and devjsed a means whereby the Bank for International Settlements should itself decide when the bonds were to be put on tho market. By ending reparations industry has been given a chance of recovery.

Nations Brought Nearer Together.

"You never received a reparation payment yet but you paid more away for it 'i-.' than you got," the Prime Minister said. "The shrinkage in two years in exports of the four chief trading nations was ten ; times as great as the maximum annuity due last year." i The preparatory work for the second phase of the conference had already been !>®gun by the League of Nations. The r . United States had expressed its willingless td be represented fit a World Economic Conference. He himself was not in '■ favour of holding it in Geneva. In concluding, Mr. Mac Donald said Europe had still to dissipate the surviving atmosphere of war. Germany must be brought back into ordinary national reI kt'onship. He was glad to say that Lausanne had brought Britain nearer to ... France, France nearer to Germany and . ance and Germany nearer to Britain. They must try to get the difficulties *®tooved by applying, increasingly, the Jpirit of the League Covenant. The British ?^ rnrne nt would continue to use its offices for peace. That work had begun. Disarmament opened new :. a^S ' an d .they might bo very broad ways.