REPORT BY FIVE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 227, 27 September 1935, Page 7

REPORT BY FIVE

ABYSSINIA DISPUTE REPLIES BY PARTIES SUGGESTIONS FOR SETTLEMENT ITALY “FORCED TO OPPOSE” [ British Official Wireless. 1 KI'GBY, Hept 25. 'The report to the League Council of its Committee of Five which has now been communicated to the parties to the Italo-Abyssinian dispute and to the. members of the Council, was published in Geneva this morning. The report includes the replies of the parties to the committee’s suggestion for a basis of negotiation, and contains also a summary of the oral observations made by the Italian delegate. The Note handed by the chairman of the committee to the representatives of the two Governments on September .18 states that the committee, which was instructed to make a general examination of Italian and Ethiopian relations, and to seek a pacific settlement, had endeavoured to find a basis of negotiation. The solicitations so far had been guided by the obligation of respecting the independence, territorial integrity, and security of all the States Members of the League, and by the necessity of ensuring good neighbourly relations between the States Members of the League. Plan of Reform The committee’s suggestions for a basis of negotiation are revealed in the report, including a charter of assistance to take the form of inviting acceptance by the Ethiopian Government of a plan of reform drawn up by the Council of the League. Dealing with public services which require organisation, the suggestion is made in this plan that a commission of foreign specialists should be appointed to organise a corps of police and gendarmerie to be responsible for ensuring the application throughout the Empire of existing order or future laws for the prohibition of all personal slavery, for regulating the carrying of arms by persons not belonging to the regular army or to the police, and for gendarmerie forces for policing centres in which Europeans reside, and maintaining order in frontier territories. Reorganisation of mixed courts, education and public health, with a principal adviser placed at the head of each group of public services, is suggested. The committee proposes that tho plan should be reviewed at the end of five vears by the Council of the League.

Territorial Adjustments A note is added concerning the readiness of the British aud French Governments to facilitate territorial adjustments between Italy and Ethiopia by offering, if necessary, certain sacrifices in the region of the ►Somaliland coast and recognising the special Italian interest in the economic development of Ethiopia. In reference to the oral observations made on September 22, it is stated that the Italian delegates protested that the committee had not taken into consideration specific charges brought by Italy against Ethiopia to the effect that the latter had not fulfilled the obligations she assumed when joining the League, and had openly violated others, and therefore could no longer be re-

garded as possessing the status of a League Member, Italy, it was added, • lid not consider that a solution of the dispute could be found within the League. It was further stated that the committee's plan for organisation of the army was left entirely free of control. Italian Opposition Regarding statements made by 'the representatives of France and the United Kingdom as to territorial adjustments in favour of Italy in exchange for .territorial concessions to Ethiopia in the region of the Somaliland coast, the Italian observations state: —“Tho Italian Government is forced to oppose these proposals because it has repeatedly denounced the danger of such a solution, which makes Ethiopia into a maritime I’ower, thus heightening the menace that she constitutes to Italy.” The Italian observations also claim that the committee should have con sidered a territorial right, proposed, bj a tripartite treaty 'Phis is described as the right to a junction between the Italian colony of Eritrea and .Somaliland to the west of Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Government, in its reply to the committee’s suggestions, declares its willingness to open negotiations immediately upon a basis ot the suggestions. _