THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1922. THE HAGUE CONFERENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18606, 14 July 1922, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1922. THE HAGUE CONFERENCE.

Ihe Hague Conference has come to naught. The hope that the unfulfilled promises of Genoa would be redeemed has been shattered!. The obstacles which brought the proceedings at Genoa to an indeterminate conclusion have again obstructed the tide of successful negotiation at the Hague and have proved fatal to the Conference. While the Russians are clamorous for the credits of which their Government is so much in need they are obdurate on the point of furnishing guarantees which the representatives of the Allied Powers can regard as acceptable. As at Genoa it has not been so much the question of the acknowledgment by Russia of her pre-war debts as her attittide on the question of confiscation of property that has constituted the. great stumbling block. Still quibbling ,as to what principles are ,pr are not in keeping with “the sacred doctrine of the Revolution,” the Russian delegates have asked for the credits necessary for the restoration of their country but have raised insuperable difficulties over the indispensable “quid pro quo,” Mr Lloyd George credited the practical statesmen of the Soviet system with being well enough aware of the only basis upon which they were likely to get credit in the West, but as being seriously under the influence of the extreme theorists in Russia. , Apparently that influence still prevails. M. Litvinoff has sought to disclaim responsibility on the part of himself and his colleagues for what must be regarded as the break-up of the Conference at the Hague. The impasse which has been reached l will scarcely be altogether displeasing to those who were never prepared to admit that the Genoa Conference was necessary or to recognise the merits of the scheme of which it was the practical embodiment. The Northcliffe press opposed and ridiculed the Conference, and no doubt a considerable body of opinion which condemned the idea of any negotiations with such a Government as that of Russia will, in the light of the developments at the Hague, be inclined to plume itself upon its prescience. In the circumstances the representative of no Government will have greater cause for disappointment than Mr Lloyd George himself. But his justification of the Genoa Conference as a desirable and promising step with a view to restoring Europe to normal conditions will hold good. Mr Lloyd George has laid much stress upon what was achieved at Genoa in the interests of the peace of Europe. He has suggested that the truce of peace to which the thirty-four nations represented at Genoa, subscribed would be the foundation of a premanent peace pact when the Hague Conference experts had examined the propositions submitted to them. Confidence on this point will he greatly dashed by the turn which events hare taken this week. Speaking in the House of Commons after his return from Genoa Mr Lloyd George said: “If Genoa succeeds even partially, great things will have been accomplished for the peace of the world. Wo have already captured positions from which further advances caq be made.” It is difficult, however, to see that the Hague has added anything to the accomplishments at Genoa,