LOCARNO TREATY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19446, 4 November 1925, Page 7

LOCARNO TREATY

FATE STILL UNCERTAIN GERMAN NATIONALS OBDURATE STRESEMANN BREAKS NEW GROUND. BRITAIN TO PROTECT GERMANY AGAINST FRANCE. Received November 3, 8.5 p.m. BERLIN, Nov. 2. The fate of the Locarno Pact is uncertain in the present tangle of party views. Herr Luther and Dr. Stresemann are hopeful that the Nationalists will relent and enable the Reichstag to ratify the treaty, but Socialists are pressing for a dissolution, arguing that they are unwilling to cast their votes in support of Herr Luther and ratification, because it virtually means enabling the Nationalists to shed the responsibility attaching to their original Pact proposals. While it is generally conceded that the majority of Germans are in favour of ratifiction, it' is felt that a plebiscite on the subject is impracticable. It would be submerged in a welter of domestic side issues. ! Present indications point to Cabinet signing the treaty on December 1, thus casting on the opponents the responsibility for flouting world opinion when the Reichstag meets. Dr. Stresemann, speaking at Dresden, expounded the treaty in terms so unusual as to attract attention. He said Mr Chamberlain declared to him that the British Navy and Army would stand at Germany’s disposal if France aggressively overstepped the frontiers. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.