DRAWING CLOSER TOGETHER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19604, 26 September 1933, Page 7

DRAWING CLOSER TOGETHER

EFFORTS TO EFFECT DISARMAMENT PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION CONTINUED British Official Wireless RUGBY, September 24. Yesterday’s disarmament conversations in Paris are understood to have been encouraging and helpful, and have carried still further the work of adjusting the views of the British, French, and United States Governments, which have been the object of earlier talks, which Captain Eden and Mr Norman Davis had had with the French Minister, By these preliminary discussions it is hoped to smoothe the w' the Disarmament Conferenct 'is resumed, and there is every reason to believe that much progress in this direction was made. As the result of the preliminary conversations have to be laid before 50 or 60 nations at the Conference for discussion and approval, no question of a final agreement arises in connection with these talks, but none the less they will serve a useful purpose. According to the “Times,” the questions under discussion were the contents of the eventual Disarmament Convention and the conditions, including international supervision, on which it could be accepted by all parties. The British Government insisted on giving the Convention first place in the discussions, and keeping the conditions in secondary proportion. The main purpose of the Conference, therefore, was to discover how far, assuming the necessary conditions, France was prepared to go in disarmament. Here the British representatives at once found reason for encouragement. They found the French Government prepared to go farther, after the preliminary period, than before, and they found also a nearer approach to a Franco-Italian understanding than at any previous time, on the contents of the Disarmament Convention. GERMANY’S EQUALITY CLAIM. THE AUSTRIAN VIEWPOINT. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received Sept. 23, 10.30 p.m.) GENEVA, Sept. 25. The chief event on Sunday was Dr Dolifuss’s visit to Sir John Simon to discuss Germany’s claim for equality of armaments. Afterwards Dr Dollfuss said that Austria would take a purely defensive attitude towards any of the German questions raised in the Assembly. He added: We don’t intend to raise the question of the treatment of the Jews. AMERICAN ATTITUDE DEFINED. WILLINGNESS TO CO-OPERATE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received Sept. 25, 10.10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 25. Mr Hull (Secretary for War) has reenunciated the United Stales arms policy as providing freedom from sanctions but a willingness to co-operate against arms treaty violaters. The Secretary stated that the United States was standing fast upon her declared willingness to go so far as other states towards real disarmament, even to bringing her armies down to a basis of domestic police forces. It was learned that the United States would not be averse to the extension of the supervisory powers of a permanent disarmament commission to keep a constant check upon new reductions when and if made.