VERSAILLES TREATY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22579, 18 November 1936, Page 13

VERSAILLES TREATY

WATERWAYS CLAUSES GERMANY'S DENUNCIATION British Wireless RUGBY, Nov. 3(5 Referring to Germany's' repudiation of the clauses of the Versailles Treaty internationalising the rivers Rhine, Elbe, Danube. Oder. Niemon and Moselle, the Times says each fresh announcement of the kind makes more difficult the task of those who are endeavouring to promote international cooperation and a settlement of outstanding questions by mutual goodwill. The paper says it finds it difficult to believe that Germany has achieved anything that could not have been attained by more regular methods. It agrees that Germany had legitimate objections to the*system of international control of waterways, but points out that an agreement on the subject, largely based on proposals she herself put forward, was reached in April and was to have become effective in six weeks' time.

All the Powers concerned had aureed to its terms with the exception of Holland. whoso consent also had. within the last few days, been definitely promised. In the House of Commons to-day, the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Edeij, recalled Herr Hitler's statement on May 21, 1935, regarding the remaining articles of the Versailles Treaty, including, it was understood, those relating to waterways, that the German Government would only carry out, by peaceable understanding, such revision as was inevitable in the course of time. Mr. Eden added that protracted but considerably successful negotiations had been in progress for many years with a view to reconciling the German desideratum with the views of other Powers. The British Government, therefore, regretted that Germany had again abandoned the negotiation for unilateral action, not because British trading interests were jeopardised, but because such action would render it more difficult to conduct international relations.