LEAGUE COUNCIL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18962, 12 March 1936, Page 5

LEAGUE COUNCIL

CHANGE OF VENUE

LONDON ASSEMBLY

PALMS SEES WISDOM

BERLIN HOPES RAISED

(Elec. Toi. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. March 12, noon) LONDON, March 11.

A report from Paris slates that French newspapers stress the wisdom of the Council of the League of Nations meeting in London, to consider the French appeal against the German denunciation of the Locarno Treaty and the German military inoccupation of the Rhineland zone.

Grave leading articles exhort Frenchmen to remain calm and confident., which indeed, is the prevailing mood in Paris. The Berlin correspondent of The Times says that. Germany considers the decision to hold the League Council in London is the result of British efforts to take the dispute out- of the atmosphere of Paris and Geneva in the hope that it may be given more, impartial consideration in London. This, it is held, indicates that. Britain is taking the lead in the matter and raises 'German hopes of a- satisfactory outcome. It is not yet known whether Germany will attend the Council, but it is believed the move to London is also an attempt to make sure of her presence. The correspondent adds' that the German public has been given only a onesided view of British reactions. The greatest prominence has been given to the very friendly sentiment expressed in Parliament. Press criticism has been slurred over and even suppressed. Everything construable as criticism of France has been made prominent in heavy type in the German newspapers, which are not even allowed to mention the propriety or otherwise of violating treaties." BELGIUM'S TELLING POINT General von Blomberg, in a speech at Berlin, agreed that war should not be used as an instrument of policy and warned his young hearers agafnst the. illusion that war was a bright and jolly affair.

Though there was a good reason to believe that the British delegates left the Paris meeting of the Locarno Powers with an increased realisation of the serious issues raised by Germany's action, The Times emphasises that it must not be supposed that the French monopolised the proceedings. France's juridical position is undoubtedly unassailable, and a telling point was made by M. Van Zeeland, for Belgium, when he pointed out that, although Belgium had not given Germany even the flimsy excuse of the pact with Russia, yet the former demilitarised zone opposite the Belgian frontiers had also been reoccupied. Nevertheless, the British delegates, while re-emphasising the British Government's grave concern at the 'German action, also re-emphasised the British view that every effort should be- made to find some constructive way out of the present impasse, if only because the alternative seemed to be an indeterminate period of dangerous tension and uncertainty.

M. Flandih's reply was that no agreement with the present rulers would, in the French view, give any better results. The Belgian delegates are believed to have taken an intermediate view.

The Rome correspondent of The Times says that, the Italian attitude is unlikely to differ very materially from that of Britain.