REFUSAL TO JOIN

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1934, Page 7

REFUSAL TO JOIN

GERMAN CABINET DECIDES PACT FOR EASTERN EUROPE CONSIDERED ANTAGONISTIC EXTREME CAUTION NEEDED ARMS EQUALITY NECESSARY By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. London, Sept. 10. The German Charge d’Affaires, Prince Otto von Bismarck, called at the British Foreign Office and handed in a memorandum containing the observations of the German Government on the proposals for an eastern pact of mutual guarantee. It is understood similar action was taken by German representatives at Paris, Rome and Moscow. It was disclosed that the German Governmen* had refused to join the Eastern Locarno Pact, adding that it could not enter such an antagonistic treaty while certain Powers refused Germany equality of armaments. “Germany amid highly armed States must be especially cautious and cannot assume an obligation which might involve her in all possible eastern conflicts and possibly make Germany a battlefield,” says the Government. In his presidential address to the Council of the League of Nations at Geneva, Dr. E. Benes, Czecho-Slovakia, Foreign Minister, referred to the decisive importance of efforts to conclude a pact of mutual assistance for eastern Europe.