LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22133, 11 December 1933, Page 9

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

BASIS OF FRENCH POLICY STATEMENT BY M. BONCOUR (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) PARIS, December 8. M. Boncour (French Minister of Foreign Affairs) categorically informed the Chamber of Deputies that the League would remain the basis of France’s policy. “We shall not allow a breach in the League, and shall oppose any attempt to create a hegemony within the League. All our ententes and pacts are indissolubly bound up with the League mechanism,” he said. GRAVE VIEW OF THE SITUATION. MR HENDERSON INTERVIEWED. LONDON, December 9. • (Received Dec. 10, at 5.5 p.m.) Disarmament questions were discussed when Mr Arthur Henderson (chairman of the Disarmament Convention) called at the Foreign Office for a meeting with Sir John Simon (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) in pursuance of a policy approved by the Bureau Conference in Geneva last month, exchanges taking place through diplomatic channels in various European capitals in an effort to advance the work of the conference. Interviewed, Mr Henderson said he took a grave view of the present situation. He said that the whole collective peace system was in danger and expressed the hope that the exchanges now taking place through diplomatic channels would make international agreement possible. The secretary-general of the League of Nations, M. Avenol, is leaving Geneva, and after a short stay at Paris, during which he will meet M. Boncour, he will proceed to London on Sunday. Sir John Simon will be the host at a Government luncheon to M. Avenol at the House of Commons on Monday. REPLY TO HERR HITLER. PARIS, December 9. (Received Dec. 10, at 8 p.m.) “ Pertinax,” in the Echo de Paris, says that M. Poncet has been instructed to tell Herr Hitler* that the ( latter"s demands on armaments equality are not capable of leading to a frank agreement regarding disarmament.