PROPOSALS FOR PACT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19247, 12 February 1937, Page 2

PROPOSALS FOR PACT

U.K. NOTES UNANSWERED

THREE WESTERN POWERS i LONDON, Feb, 3. Tlie "new Locarno" is in the doldrums and unanswered Notes from Britain about it lie in the Foreign Offices of Brussels, Berlin and Rome. After Ilerr Hitler had denounced the Treaty of Locarno on March 7, 1936, and marched his troops into the Rhineland (where the treaty bound him not to send them), it was hoped that the Western Powers might reach some new accord to ensure peace on the basis of mutual guarantees. Britain has since pressed for a "Locarno Conference" to draft the needed agreement; but, in the light of the record revealed by Mr. Eden in the House of Commons, even the preliminaries seem to have fallen flat.

Mr. Eden gave the. sequence of recent events as follows.:— November 6.—British Government sends Note to Belgium, France, Germany and Italy, comparing views expressed by all five Governments on preliminary questions'.

November 19.—British Government sends a further Note to other Governments, suggesting how various opinions of five Governments might be reconciled. Note invites others' suggestions. December 19.—British representatives abroad are instructed to inquire whether Belgium, France, Germany and Italy expect shortly to be able to reply, French Government replies. To-day.—Still no answer from Belgian, German or Italian Governments. A member of the House of Common* suggested further requests for replies. Sir, Eden said: "It is just as much in their interests to answer as in ours." He added that it. had always been the British Government's expectation that. progress in the negotiation of a new Western agreement to take the pJnce of the Treaty of Locarno would lead to a widening of the aria of discussions so as to include other problems a fleeting Europe's peace..