BIG ISSUES BEFORE THE LEAGUE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20000, 7 January 1935, Page 7

BIG ISSUES BEFORE THE LEAGUE

LAST YEAR’S RECORD REVIEWED British Official Wireless (Received January 6, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, January 4. In speaking at Newcastle, Captain Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal, said that 1934 was an anxious and buffeted year, but its closing weeks saw a definite and even startling improvement in the international outlook. This in the main was due to the course of events at Geneva during the specially summoned meeting, one of the most momentous in the League of Nations’ history, at which the Council of the League was confronted with two problems. The first concerned the arrangements for the Saar plebiscite, and more especially the maintenance of order during the plebiscite period. The solution of this problem, he felt confident, had been greatly facilitated by the initiative of the United Kingdom Government in its proposal to contribute troops to the International * Force stationed by the League in the Saar, and by the generous readiness of other countries to- co-operate in the creation of such a force. The second problem was even more difficult and constituted a more serious menace to the preservation of peace. It arose out of the acute dispute between Yugoslavia and Hungary following the assassination of King Alexander, and here especial responsibility rested upon the representatives of the British Government to maintain an attitude of scrupulous impartiality. The Council of the League could claim that in one week two problems, either of which might have seriously undermined the good relations between the States of Europe, have been so dealt with as now to give fair prospect of a satisfactory and final conclusion.