NEARER AGREEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22066, 23 September 1933, Page 11

NEARER AGREEMENT

DISARMAMENT PROBLEMS NATIONS EXCHANGE VIEWS (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, September 21. Sir John Simon, Captain Eden and the Hon. A. G. Cadogan (of the Foreign Office) will fly to Paris to-morrow, and will have conversations with French Ministers. Afterwards they will take the night train to Geneva, arriving on Saturday for the League meetings. Next week’s League meetings will afford opportunity for conversations between statesmen of the leading Powers upon disarmament, although the Disarmament Conference does not reassemble until October 16. The facts which will then have to be faced have not been neglected, but in a recent series of conversations and exchanges, in which Britain, France, the United States and Italy have each taken part, efforts have been made to straighten out many of the difficulties which were apparent when the conference adjourned in June. Although the events in Europe since then have not helped this task they have certainly added to its importance. The alternatives are a disarmament convention and no convention, and the consequences of failure, it is recognised, would almost inevitably have a thoroughly bad influence on European relationships. When the proceedings are resumed at the conference the British Governments draft convention will continue to provide a basis for discussion. Meanwhile next week’s conversations will be devoted to simplifying its course by smoothing out, through preliminary understandings, points which caused, or are likely to cause, difficulty. Already substantial progress towards agreement has been made, although decisions upon isolated questions are not expected or called for by individual countries since they of necessity be considered in relation to the whole disarmament picture. Thus the Anglo-French conversations have been mainly concerned with eliciting the French views regarding supervision, and examining the manner in which they might work in with the general proposals for a disarmament convention.

The British Draft Convention provides for a period of nine months before any material should be disposed of, and the newspapers consider it possible that French views may be met by lengthening this period. It is desired in British quarters that this interim period should not be barren of all disarmament, and that it should be accelerated when examination showed this, interim period to have been satisfactorily completed. The Anglo-French conversations on the draft disarmament convention will be resumed to-morrow following a luncheon given at the Embassy in Paris by the British Ambassador (Lord Tyrrell). Sir John Simon and Captain Eden will take part in the conversations, and be joined by Mr Stanley Baldwin, who is at present in the French capital. The French Government’s representatives will be the Prime Minister (M. Daladier) and M. Boncour (Foreign Minister).