LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19905, 27 September 1926, Page 9

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

THE DISARMAMENT ISSUE. VISCOUNT CECIL DEPRECATES UNDUE HASTE. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) - GENEVA, September 24. Received Sept. 25, at 5.5 p.m.) A plenary session of the Assembly today discussed disarmament which Viscount Cecil said was vital to th 6 League’s existence. ‘‘We cannot even afford to contemplate failure,” he declared. I would even prefer to see the conference postponed for a year than risk failure through incomplete preparation. Public opinion must be uplifted to the essentials of disarmament.” M. Paul Boncour’s motion urging a speeding-up so that a preparatory conference might be held before the next Assembly was agreed to.—A. and N.Z. Cable. RHINELAND EVACUATION. STATEMENT BY DR STRESEMANN. GENEVA, September 24. (Received Sept. 25, at 5.5 p.m.) Dr Strcsemann told the League that the amount that Germany was prepared to pay for the evacuation of the Rhineland was a matter for examination by experts. It would be nothing approaching the £400,000,000 forecasted by the newspapers, nor a greater burden than the Dawes agreement. —A. and N.Z. Cable. ADMINISTRATION OF MANDATES. GENEVA, September 24. (Received Sept. 25, at 5.5 p.m.) All the commissions have now wound up their task. The Sixth Commission carefully toned down Dr Nansen’s mandates motion making it an expression of confidence in the Mandates Commission, which will collaborate with the mandatory powers in the application of the principles of Article XXII. This side-tracked the virtual attempt to make the Sixth Commission a court of appeal on mandates. —A. and N.Z. Cable.