NO OBSTACLE TO OUTLAWING WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18451, 30 April 1928, Page 9

NO OBSTACLE TO OUTLAWING WAR.

FRENCH DRAFT TREATY PRESENTS NO BAR KELLOGG DECLARES POWERS COULD SIGN (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(Received April 30, 10.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 29. Mr F. B. Kellogg, addressing the American Society of International Law declared, in substance, that the reservations embodied in the French draft of the Treaty for the outlawing of war presented no effective bar to the acceptance of his own draft treaty, with its provisions for the simple renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy by the world’s Powers, without qualifications.

He added that the chief stumbling block in the French draft might be the requirement for practically universal acceptance by the nations of the world, before it bec a m e effective. This, he held, was impractical, and its consideration was not required by the

actual conditions. Mr Kellogg con

tended that the Covenant of the League of Nations imposed no affirmative primary obligation to go to war. He invited the signatories to the Locarno compacts to adhere to the anti-war treaty. He asserted that it was unnecessary to declare in the Treaty that if a signatory violated it all the other contracting Powers would automatically be released as against that Power. "The proposed Treaty does not impair the right of self defence,” he said. "States whose neutrality has been guaranteed by France could also sign the Treaty, and thus secure its advantages without in any way impairing France’s obligations to such States.”—Australian Press Association.