KNOTTY PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22225, 27 September 1935, Page 11

KNOTTY PROBLEM

ETHIOPIA'S FUTURE

COMMITTEE'S SCHEME

REORGANISATION OF COUNTRY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright British Wireless RUGBY, Sept. 25 The report submitted to the League Council by the Committee of Five, which has now been communicated to Italy and to Abyssinia and to the members of the Council, was published at Geneva this morning. The report includes the replies of the parties to the committee's suggestion for a basis of negotiation, and contains also a summary of the oral observations made by the Italian delegate, Baron Aloisi. Notes handed by the chairman of the committee, Senor dc Madariaga, to tho representatives of the two Governments on September 18 stated that the committee, which was instructed to make u general examination of tlio relations between Italy and Ethiopia and to seek a pacific settlement of their dispute, had endeavoured to find a basis of negotiation lor a solution, bo far it had been guided by the obligation of respecting the independence, territorial integrity and security of all member States of the League and by the necessity for ensuring good neighbourly relations between the members. The committee's suggestions for a basis of negotiation were revealed in the report. They included a charter of assistance to take the form of inviting acceptance by the Ethiopian Government of a plan of reform to be drawn up by tho Council dealing with public services which require organisation.

The suggestion was made in this plan l'or the appointment of commissions of foreign specialists to organise a corps of police and gendarmerie. This corps would be responsible for ensuring the application throughout the Empire of the existing order or future laws, for the prohibition of all personal slavery, for regulating the carrying of arms by persons not belonging to the regular army or to the police, and for gendarmerie forces for policing centres in which Europeans reside and maintaining order in frontier territories. The reorganisation of the mixed courts, education and public health, with a principal adviser placed at the head of each group of public services, was suggested, and the committee proposed that the plan should bo reviewed at the end of fivo years by the Council of the League.

A Note was added to the report outlining the Italian observations and stating that the Ethiopian Government, in its reply to the committee's suggestions, had declared its willingness to open negotiations immediately upon the basis of them.

ATTACK ON LEAGUE "SCREEN FOR HYPOCRITES" MR. W. E. BORAH'S OUTBURST (Received September 26, 9.45 p.m.) NEW YORK. Sept. 25 " The League of Nations has become a screen for hypocrites who are trying to divide the territory of Europe," said Mr. W. E. Borah, Republican member of the Senate, who was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Hoover regime, in an address to an audience of farmers at Wilder, Idaho. He warned them to fight for sovereignty in matters pertaining to the Constitution, "as that document is the only protection you have on God's earth."

After asserting that a war which would involve European nations appeared only too probable, Mr. Borah recalled recent statements by spokesmen for Britain t» the effect that the United States must defend the peace of the world, but it was likely, he said, that be hi hi' the peace of the world was a thing that concerned Britain a great deal more, namely, "the territory she has down there around Ethiopia."

Continuing, Mr. Borah said: " Ihe Premier of Italy has discovered that there are some vast natural resources in Ethiopia and he has a hankering for them. Ethiopia has committed the crime of being a small nation 111 possession of vast riches, so she is to be punished. I venture to say that if the people of Italy had the kind of Constitution you have, with power to oxpress themselves, the right of free speech and the right to discuss whether or not they should go into war there would be no war in Europe. lime and again Mr. Borah was interrupted by applause.

EMPIRE ATTITUDE

LONDON PAPER'S VIEWS

LONDON. Sept. 25

The Daily Mail says a war following the application of sanctions would seriously weaken the Empire and would produce such discontent in large sections of the Dominions as to strengthen the separatist forces. Certain Dominions might hold aloof and sever their connection with the League.

The paper contrasts with Mr. J. A. Lyons' assurance of co-operation the views of Mr. F. M. Fordo, Federal Labour deader, and those of the New South Wales Labour Party, DENIAL OF A CONCESSION LONDON. Sopt. Officials of Mosul Oilfields, Limited, state that the report that Italians had procured a controlling interest in the company Jind in British Oil Developments, a subsidiary concern, is without foundation.