BRITAIN TO LEAD

Southland Times, Issue 22918, 17 June 1936, Page 5

BRITAIN TO LEAD

Sanctions’ End INITIATIVE AT GENEVA Decision Of Cabinet (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 9.20 p.m.) London June 15. According to The Daily Mail a hurried meeting of members of Cabinet, including the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden), in the Prime Minister’s room, decidetl that sanctions must be dropped and that Britain should lead the League of Nations in a retreat from the sanctions policy. Twenty speakers at the weekly meeting of the Conservative Members’ Committee were unanimous that sanctions must be terminated.. Reports that Mr Eden will resign as the result of Mr Neville Chamberlain s speech advocating .he cessation of sanctions are officially denied. Mr Eden, in the House of Commons, said that the. Government desired a debate on the foreign policy at the earliest opportunity. “I shall then be prepared to state the views of the Government about the action to be taken collectively at the meeting of the League Council and of the Assembly,” said the Foreign Secretary. The Leader of the Labour Opposition (Major C. R. Attlee) then gave notice that the Labour Party would ask for a debate on Thursday, and later the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin) said that the Government would accept this request. No Dissension In Cabinet. The political correspondent of The Morning Post says that Mr Eden’s speech in the House of Commons on Thursday, announcing the Government’s decision to propose the raising of sanctions, will follow closely the lines of Mr Chamberlain’s speech of June .11. It will point out that sanctions failed either to prevent or to end the Abyssinian war or preserve the independence of Abyssinia, and that in view of this there is no logical or practical justification in maintaining them. There have been no differences among the members of Cabinet about this decision. The only hesitancy has been whether Britain should lead nt Geneva or leave the initiative to the Assembly. The Sun-Herald News Agency says that a section of the Press continues to suggest grave Cabinet differences over the forthcoming decision on sanctions, and that Mr Eden’s resignation is imminent. Such rumours, however, are without foundation; they are primarily designed to force Mr Eden from Cabinet, but are not likely to succeed.