BRITISH MINISTERS MEET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 197, 23 August 1935, Page 7

BRITISH MINISTERS MEET

DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS DOMINIONS FULLY INFORMED. LONDON, Aug. 21. Activiity at Dawning Street continues. Mr. G. Lansbury (Leader of the Opposition) conferred with Sir Samuel Hoare (Foreign Minister). On arriving from Lossiemouth, Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald said that the position was the gravest we have had to face since 1914.

Mr. Stanley Baldwin arrived, and a meeting with Mr. MacDonald, Sir S. Hoare, Mr. Eden, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, and others was held immediately.

Well-informed opinion states that the Government has no intention of suggesting au emergency meeting of the League and will continue diplomatic negotiations until the Geneva meeting on September 4. Mr. Lloyd George had an hour’s interview with Sir S. Hoare and Mr. Eden at the Foreign Office, and afterwards Mr. S. M. Bruce, Sir James Farr, Canada’s Acting-High Commissioner, and the Egyptian Minister jointly conferred with Sir S. Hoare. To-day’s meeting of the British and Dominion representatives was the forerunner of a number that will bo held before September 4 regarding the Abyssinian situation. It was held principally with the object of imparting the full story of the Paris failure to the Dominions, also in accordance with, the established principle of a close liaison with the Dominions when a major decision on international policy is pending. Sir S. Hoare and Mr. Eden left the High Commissioners in no doubt regarding the extreme gravity of the situation. The Dominion representatives were offered an opportunity of expressing tentative views, but, pending to-morrow’s Cabinet meeting, the consultations have not reached the stage at which Britain will take soundings of the extent to which moral and material support might be expected from the Empire.

Cabinet’s own decision cannot be made until the sanction and anti sane tion elements in it arc reconciled. It will probably be a week before the High Commissioners are in a position to seek instructions.

While there is ample evidence of the interest in the situation by all of the Dominions, the Australian Associated Press learns that none has yet expressed an opinion to Whitehall. An official wireless message adds: It is anticipated that at to-morrow’s meeting the report on the Paris conversations will be discussed and general discussions of the situation will follow. Further meetings of Cabinet will he found necessary for formulating instructions to British representatives at the League Council meeting on September 4 and for the question of the export of arms to Italy and Abyssinia.