THE OPTIONAL CLAUSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20899, 13 December 1929, Page 11

THE OPTIONAL CLAUSE

WHY BRITAIN SIGNED. A WHITE PAPER ISSUED. (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association ) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, December 11. A White Paper has been issued setting out the considerations which led the British Government to sign the optional clause of the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, and dealing with the fears expressed in some quarters as to the consequence of that signature. In a closely reasoned memorandum the Government maintains that as regards a dispute of justifiable character the signature of the optional clause is a sequence of the acceptance of the Pact of Peace. Legal renunciation of war, to be made effective, should be accompanied by definite acts providing machinery ! for a peaceful settlement of disputes. ' By signing the optional clause thd British Government hoped both to give the world proof of its confidence in the Peace Pact, as an earnestness of. its desire to secure a peaceful settlement'of justifiable disputes in which it might become involved, and to do what lay in its power to stimulate other nations to do the same. The memorandum refers to the discussions regarding the optional clause which took place between the different Governments in the British Empire, which concluded at Geneva when Great Britain, the dominions, and India, decided to sign the clause. In conclusion, the memorandum says that the question sometimes asked as to the safety of thrusting British interests to the Permanent Court should really be transposed into the question as to the wisdom of leaving British interests without any safeguard except for what Britain has undertaken. The British Government maintains that the whole course of international development for many years has been in the direction of the substitution of arbitration for war, and it rejoices at the possession of an International Court of unchallenged competence and impartiality to which disputes of a justiciable character can be referred.