MANDATES COMMISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19969, 10 December 1926, Page 11

MANDATES COMMISSION

THE (FAMOUS QUESTIONNAIRE. AUSTRALIAN OFFICIAL REPLY. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) GENEVA, December 8. (Received Dec. 9, at 5.5 p.m.) Sir Erie Drummond has communicated t© the members of the League Council and the Mandates Commission the replies of the Japanese, Belgian, and Australian Governments in regard to the Commission’s famous questionnaire. The Australian Government’s reply says substantially that if the petitioners are given the right of appearing personally a representative of the mandatory Power must be given a similar right. The Commonwealth Government thinks that the existing practice should not be altered. In regard to the questionnaire it says that neither the Council nor any League organisation is competent to interfere in the actual administration, and the Commonwealth Government is unable to see in many cases how much of the information is likely to assist the Commission in the exercise of its duties, and is consequently of opinion that it is unwise to adopt the questionnaire in its present form.—A. and N.Z. Cable.