LOCARNO TREAIY TALKS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19121, 16 September 1936, Page 6

LOCARNO TREAIY TALKS

DIPLOMATS PREPARING FUTURE OF EUROPE QUEST FOR agreement (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 2, p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 15. The preliminary diplomatic preparations for the proposed meeting of the Locarno Treaty Powers, to which the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, despite his recent enforced absence from the department has been giving constant attention since, his return from his holiday, are now making progress.

A communique of July 23 favoured the. opening of the. negotiations, for a new agreement. Jo take, tho place- ol the Rhine Pact of Locarno as the first- business in the programme for the consolidation of peace by means! of general settlement achieved by the tree co-opera-tion of all Powers concerned. The communique declared that stops should be taken to arrange a. five-Powcr meeting as soon as it could conveniently be held, and there was speculation at the- time as to whether it would assemble before the opening of the League Assembly.

■Subsequently in the. House of L ominous, .Mr. Ellen emphasised the view of Ills Majesty’s Government that a great amount of preparatory work would need to bo clone through diplomatic channels before the, meeting could usefully take place and the German and other Govern-1 meats, in,accepting the invitations to tho meeting, also stressed the inipoilance oi careful diplomatic preparation. It was with, the idea of allowing time for diplomatic exchanges- that the British Government tentatively suggested the second week in October as the date fur flic conference, which it hoped would lie generally suitable and which it bad reason to think would be acceptable to the German Government. AVOIDANCE OF DRIFT Sincoi the preliminary exchanges are to be. made through diplomatic channels 1 , the League meetings, in tho next few weeks do not involve any interruption to the work and the date,'therefore, was thought to leave ample time for preparing the ground. There was a strong feeling in London that the prospective date is among the first essentials to be agreed by the participating Powers if the danger of drift is to be avoided. Tho proposal of His Majesty’s Government. for the meeting to take place before the end of October has been found agreeable by the French, and Belgian Government®, and it is understood that these Governments would also favour London as the meeting place.

The German Government, in what is regarded as an interim reply, expressed tho opinion that a. meeting in October would provide sufficient time for a. continuation of the preparatory discussion. The Italian Government, whose reply was delivered by Signor Grandi to Sir Robert Vansitturt. in thanking tho British Government lor the invitation, added that before fixing an actual date for the meeting, the Italian Government thought the diplomatic exchanges should continue.

The date for tho conference remains, therefore, a matter for further discussion.