LOCARNO PACT.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 385, 17 March 1937, Page 5

LOCARNO PACT.

CLEVER DIPLOMACY. A Peaceful Trip On a Peace Mission. Far below the towering peaks of the Swiss Alps nestles a little lake, placid and blue as the mountain giants are terrifying and awesome. On a calm night in the summer of 1931, a little lake steamer caine fussing across the Lake of Maggiore, a cockleshell which daily carried its loads of tourists from the small town of Locarno to beauty-spots around the lake. On this occasion, as if impressed with its own importance, the little steamer puffed and fussed more than usual. Then, when some hundred yards off the jetty,, its wheezing engines stopped and the vessel lay hoveto ’midst all the silence of that alpine area. •

To the watchers from the jetty, all seemed as usual on the steamer. They wondered, perhaps, at its stop, and they wondered, too, when eventually, after half an hour, the steamer made fast and from the- gangway stepped a quartette of leading European diplomats of the year. There was M. Briand of France, smiling and cheerful; there was Herr Stresemann of Germany, even then gallantly fighting the dread disease which shortly afterwards killed him: there was the Belgian Foreign Minister. looking happier that night than even at the close of the Great War. when his little country was freed from the danger of a foreign invasion; and there, too, was the tall, polished figure of Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain. He had been the host on the lake steamer, host at a party to celebrate his birthday. Did the onlookers believe that his smile of satisfaction was the result merely of a happy birthday party? That night, from Locarno, telegraph wires carried the real story of Sir Austen Chamberlain’s party and the real reason why the little lake steamer did not make fast immediately to the jetty whs n its round-the-iake trip was over. It was in the saloon that the Treaty of Locarno was signed. Complete agreement had not been arrived when the trip was finished. A word to the captain from Sir Austen, a tinkle to the engineroom, and all was quiet. There in that last half-hour the peace of Western Europe was pledged, a peace that has lasted and a peace which was a triumph of Chamberlain diplomacy.

GUNMAN FOUND. Police Superintendent Identifies Assailant. Press Association—Copyright. (Received 12.30 p.m.) Melbourne, To-day. In connection with the shooting in cident on May 22nd last year, Super itendent Brophiy, in the City Court identified Geoffrey Davies, aged 32, a: :he man who shot him. Davis, whc war.' charged jwlth (having woundjeu Brophy with intent to murder him was committed for trial.