THE NEW MEMBER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12389, 8 March 1926, Page 7

THE NEW MEMBER

GERMANY WILL BE ADMITTED TO LEAGUE THIS WEEK

WILL OTHERS BE ADMITTED?

DOMINIONS’ DELEGATES WILL NOT COMMIT THEMSELVES

Germany will be admitted to tbe League of Nations, and to the Council of the League, this week. Whether or not other members will be admitted is not definitely known. It is understood that the Dominions’ dele gates will not commit themselves on the question.

By Telegraph.—Frees Assn. —Copyright. Australian ami N.Z. Cable Association. (Received March 7, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 6. It appears that the admission of Germany to the League of Nations will be a protracted process. She will first be elected to membership, and then to a permanent seat on the Council. This will involve a succession of meetings of the Council and of the Assembly, at which the Germans will not be present. It may be the middle of the week before the Germans sit at the League table, and thus there will be ample time for informal conversations. At least six Prime Ministers will be present at Geneva. Sir Joseph Cook and Mr Casey (Australia), and Sir James Allen and Mr Knowles (New Zealand) went to Geneva to-day. S'ir Austen Chamberlain, after meeting the other diplomatists who were at Lpcarno, meets the Dominions’ delegations for the purpose of assimilating the procedure. It is understood that Sir Joseph Cook and Sir James Allen have been instructed to co-operate with Sir Austen Chamberlain in connection with the immediate admission of Germany to a permanent seat on the Council, but that they are not committing themselves on contentious questions, such as the enlargement of the Counoil by the admission of Poland, Spain, and Brazil, until they are further instructed. GERMANY WANTS NO CHANGE Herr Sfresemann, Foreign Minister for Germany, interviewed by Lady Drum mon d-Hay, the “Daily Express” correspondent, on the eve of departing for Geneva, said the responsibility for preventing changes in the League on the occasion of Germany’s entry must be borne in good faith by the socalled Locarno Powers. General De Rivera, Prime Minister of Spain, in an interview in \ Madrid, 'said: “I consider it is not only right in the national interests that Spain should have a permanent seat, but in the interests ,of the world, because Spain genuinely represents the neutral and conciliatory attitude in problems which fall to the League for solution.”

Reuter’s Telegram. (Received March 7, 5.5 p.m.) VIENNA, March 6. Czecho-Slovakia favours enlarging the membership of the League. Council, according to her Foreign Minister, Dr Benes. He added that a treaty with Hungary should not be difficult to arrange in the spirit of Locarno. (Received March 7, 5.5 p.m.) STOCKHOLM, March 0. The leaders of all parties in the Chamber emphatically endorsed the statement of Mr O. Unden, the Foreign Minister, on the eve of his de. par'ture for Geneva, that the Swedish delegates in the League Assembly would oppose any proposal to reorganise Council in the course of the March session, apart from the admission pf Germany. Reuter’s Telegram. LONDON, March 5. The comparative smallness of the Government vote at tfee end of the debate in the House of Commons on the question of permanent seats in the Council of the League of Nations is attributed more to the belief that the Opposition would not force a division on the eve of Sir Austen Chamberlain’s departure to Geneva than to any desire of the Conservatives to abstain from voting. No Conservative voted against the Government. Neither of the formal motions put down by both wings of the Opposition was moved, for technical reasons. Still, there is some dissatisfaction among the Conservatives with the position. Conservative criticism is directed against Britain being in any was tied, to Spain. All parties share the dislike of anything approaching entanglement expressed in Sir Austen Chamberfifin’s opposition to any rival camps. BRIAND CANNOT PLEDGE FRANCE (Received March 8, 0.30 a.m.) Sir Austen Chamberlain and other delegates have departed for Geneva, M. Briand will accompany Sir Austen from Paris, and attend the preliminary conversations, but he will not participate in the official deliberations, as he takes up the standpoint that since he has been defeated in the Chamber he is unable to pledge the Government.