THE PACIFIC TREATY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18511, 23 March 1922, Page 5

THE PACIFIC TREATY

DEBATE IN THE SENATE. BRITAIN AND AMERICA. ALLEGED SECRET UNDERSTANDING Preas Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. WASHINGTON, March 21. Mr P. D. Cravath unequivocally denied the statements attributed to him by Senator Borah. He said that Senator Borah’s speech was pure romance. Despite Mr Cravath’s and Sir Auckland Geddes’s denial in connection with the Pacific Treaty, the opponents of the Treaty continue to profess the belief that secret agreements concerning the Treaty exist. Senator Shields intends to move that the Treaty be sent back to the Foreign Relations Committee, with instructions to summon Mr Cravath, Mr Root, and Mr Hughes, and to question them concerning Treaty negotiations.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE ALLEGED UNDERSTANDING. PRESIDENT’S EMPHATIC DENIAL. WASHINGTON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 5.5 p.m.) White House emphatically denies that the United States has entered into a secret understanding with any country. President Harding believes that it would have been the height of perfidity for the United States to invite Japan to Washington and then betray her confidence by making a secret agreement with Great Britain.—A. and N.Z. Cable. MR HUGHES ANSWERS CRITICS. WASHINGTON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 8.20 p.m.) Mr Hughes struck back sharply at the Senate critics of the Pacific Pact in a letter addressed to Senator Lodge, 'which the latter read to the Senate. Mr Hughes said he noticed that the latest charge made in the debate on the Four-Power Treaty was that there was a secret agreement or an understanding between the American Government and Great Britain respecting Pacific matters. “Any such statement is absolutely false,” he said. “We have no secret understandings or agreements with Great Britain in relation to the Four-Power Treaty or any other matter. \ Permit me to express the hope that the American delegates will be spared further aspersions upon their veracity and honour.”—A. aijd N.Z. Cable. [Speaking in the Senate recently. Senator Borah said that a secret understanding had been reached by Great Britain and ifie United States to co-operate against Japan in the case of trouble in the Far East. Senator Borah said that he based his charge on a speech by Mr Paul' D. Cravath, in which the latter said that ]he had been told by every member of the American delegation that a thorough understanding existed between the American and British Governments in respect to co-operation between the two fleets if necessary. Slenator Borah said that the same information had reached him from Europe.]