WITHOUT A POLICY?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 85, 11 April 1935, Page 7

WITHOUT A POLICY?

BRITAIN GOES TO STRESA DELAY ATTRIBUTED TO CABINET COMPLICATIONS STATEMENT BY SIMON ON EVE OF DEPARTURE WHAT OTHER GOVERNMENTS THINK OF SITUATION IB» Telegraph—Press Association—CopjrijjrbtJ Received April 10, 7.10 p.m. LONDON, April 10. The House of Commons showed intense interest in a statement which the Foreign Secretary, on the eve of his departure for the Three-Power Conference at Stresa, made in regard to the recent exploratory tour of European capitals. . Sir John Simon said that it would be appreciated that just as the visits paid to Berlin. Moscow, Warsaw, and Prague arose out of the London Declaration of February 3, so these visits which were to provide material as to the views of other Governments were connected with the Stresa meeting of the British, French, and Italian Governments which will begin on Thursday. In these circumstances he would only make a summarised statement of what had been ascertained as to the views of other States, and it would not be possible to use the occasion for a pronouncement of the'Government ’s policy. The Sun-Herald says: "The real significance of Sir John Simon’s statement was the entire absence of a defined policy. The situation has the elements of Cabinet complications, the sequel to which will only be known after the Stresa Conference. Cabinet appears to have divided itself into two schools—proFrench and pro-German. Evidently the Conservatives are ranging themselves against Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and Sir John Simon, whose presence at Stresa without a single Conservative Minister, may conceivably create a situation in which the Conservatives, will eventually seek to replace the National Administration. The Conservatives fear that Mr. MacDonald and Sir John Simon, without Mr. Eden, will not express the British policy at Stresa as they want it. ’ ’ The Morning Post asks when and where this exploratory business is going to end. “We had better make up our minds to join those countries which are ready here and now to combine for common security,” adds that journal. “It would be absurd to represent as encirclement a defensive security system to which Germany can gain admission for the asking. ” The Daily Mail says that Mr. MacDonald and Sir John Simon should state that the British people will not allow themselves to be taxed for, or conscripted for the independence of Austria, the defence of Czechoslovakia, or the wars of Moscow. They should announce that they have decided io organise British security and build a supreme air fleet. The Daily Telegraph says that public opinion will note with assurance that Britain is not committed to any course without the previous discussion of Parliament, but it will expect that a strenuous attempt be made to reach a clear-cut decision as soon as the exploratory measures are complete. The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent says that the British Ministers are strongly of opinion that an early declaration reaffirming Britain’s determination to carry out all her obligations under the Covenant and Locarno should be made as a steadier to European nerves. The News-Chronicle, in a leader, says: " There is a danger that if the British delegation allows it to be thought that Britain cannot, as a last resort, be relied upon in a fight against an aggressor, France. Italy and Russia, nervous of Germany and impatient for action, will form a military alliance, thus bringing about the very thing the British Government most deprecates.” The London Times, in a leader, says: “Foreign countries arc certain to be somewhat disappointed at Britain’s failure to give a more precise indication of policy, but Sir John Simon s reason was that other Governments had been assured that no definite decisions would be taken before Stresa. Mr. MacDonald and Sir John Simon can count on the support of a united country, both at Stresa and Geneva.”