INTERNATIONAL PEACE

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1930, Page 11

INTERNATIONAL PEACE

LEADERS MEET AT LONDON BRILLIANT PILGRIMS’ DINNER significant gathering By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 11.45 p.m. London,-Jan. 29. At the Pilgrims’ dinner at the Hotel Victoria, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, M. Tardieu, Mr. T. M. Wilford, Mr. J. E. Fenton, Sir Granville Ryrie, Mr. S. M. Bruce, and Mr. IL L. Stimson were the principal guests. Cabinet members and other leaders of Anglo-American friendship were present,, the banquet being one. of the most remarkable nohofficial gatherings connected' with' the naval conference.

“The Pilgrims’’-is an Anglo-American institution of high status aiming at the improvement' of international relatione and the removal of difficulties and misunderstandings between the AngloSaxon peoples. A significant feature of the dinner was the entry of the piece de resistance, the Angel of Peace in ice, whose rapid melting, in which nobody professed to see an unfavourable omen, necessitated its removal before the speeches began.

Japanese, British, French, American and Italian flags furnished the background for the speakers, the chairman bein<r Viscount Grey of Falloden. The heacf table was brilliant with naval uniforms.

Viscount Grey, in proposing, the health of the delegates, emphasised that the hopes of the world were centred on the conference. The relief of taxation was a relatively small matter compared with the larger hope that the success of the conference would mark * a real step forward towards the world's security and peace, z “If the conference succeeds we shall go forward to the Preparatory Commission at Geneva and make a worldwide treaty which will get rid of the menace of competitive armaments,” said Viscount Grey. “If the conference should fail, who can foretell the consequences? But I refuse to contemplate such a thought. I am confident the opportunity will not be lost or wasted. One thing we may. already congratulate ourselves upon is that'we have rid ourselves of the .vicious circle of competition in armaments which we had before the war. The failure of the thrce-Power naval conference at -Geneva seemed a set-back, but instead, there is a fivepower conference to-day to which each country has sent its loading statesmen.” Viscount Grey, in closing, emphasised the necessity for friendship, and co-oper-ation with the United States,' but it must be for no exclusive, national -arrangement. It must be for a matter of world policy, which is inclusive but not exclusive. . / ? •' ■

Signor Grandi, on behalf of the delegates, paid a tribute to Viscount Grey. He added that an actual and not merely an apparent reduction was what the people demanded from the London conference. “My chief, Signor Mussolini, has laid down a vast programme of work which Italy is desirous of carrying out,” said Signor Grandi. "That programme is a peaceful one." .