PEACE TREATIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 63, 14 March 1936, Page 9

PEACE TREATIES

A CLEAR VIOLATION LOCARNO POWERS' DECISION MATTER NOW FOR LEAGUE I [By Telegraph—Pres* Association —C< pyright] Received March 13, 11 a.m. : LONDON, March 12. ; The conversations between Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, ; which were begun in Paris on Tuesday, > were continued in London to-day. A formal meeting of the four dele- . gations took place early this evening in the old Cabinet room at the Foreign Office. The meeting was most secret, and most of the repiesentatives arrived at the Foreign Ofiice unobserved by side entrances, eluding photographers as well as the crowd. The principal British delegates were the Foreign Secretary, Mr Anthony Eden, who presided, Lord Halifax, Lord Privy Seal, and the Permanent Head of the Foreign Office, Sir Robert Vansit lari. The French Foreign Minister, M. Flandin, and the Belgian Prime Minister, M. Van Zeeland, were accompanied by the French and Belgian Ambassadors in London, Signor Grandi, the Italian Ambassador in London, at- ' tended for Italy. Decision of Meeting After the meeting, which lasted for 2j hours, a communique stated: — “It was unanimously recognised by the representatives of the Powers represented at the conference that the reoccupation of the demilitarised zone by Germany constituted a clear violation of Articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles, and also the Treaty of Lo»carno. It will be for the League Council, to which France and Belgium have referred the matter, to pronounce upon this point. In order to facilitate more detailed study of the situation first the delegates of the four Powers met after the conference as a small committee which will meet again at 1.1.30 a.in. on Friday. ’ ’ The League Council meeting will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Flandin's Confidence in Issue Ou his arrival in London M. Flandin, who described himself as an old and faithful filend of Britain, said he had unhesitatingly accepted the proposal to change the meeting-place of the representatives of Locarno signatories, and he bad every confidence in the ultimate issue of the conversations. In the present circumstances, which were serious for the future of peace, France upheld that same notion of collective security by means of trie Covenant which was dear to British public opinion. The only public Ministerial speech in which the European crisis was mentioned was made by Lord Eustace Percy, Minister without portfolio, at Birmingham last night. He emphasised that the demilitarised zone was freely accepted by the German Government in the Locarno Treaty and had been reaffirmed by Herr Hitler himself. “There still exists,” he said, 4 ‘the element of national pride and ambition — belief in the destiny of a nation overriding any treaty —that constitutes or goes to make up the law of nations. That is a spirit that has made the wars of the past, and which, if we cannot suppress it, will make wars of the future. It is essential that we should command the position in the Commonwealth of Nations that there is a law and that that law must not be broken.” “Act of Brutal Force” Sir Austen Chamberlain, who negotiated the Locarno Pact, speaking at Cambridge, said: “With my memory quivering at this moment with the events which led up to the Great War, [ am impressed by the similarity of Germany’s policy to-day tu the policy which rendered the Great War inevitable. ’ ’ If Germanv had desired to challenge all Euiope, if she had desired to raise once and for all the questio whether there is any international morality of law, she could not have raised that question more completely or challengingly than by her action in the demilitarised zone. Herr Hitler had described Germany’s signing of the Locarno Pact as Germany’s >contribution to the appeasement of Europe. 'That contribution had now been withdrawn without consultation or negotiation by an act of brutal force and by tearing up treaties. We had to ask ourselves, Sir Austen added, whether any treaty made with Germany could be more than a scrap of paper. Locarno was not a dictated peace. It was a treaty, proposals for which came from Germany. The particular provisions for guarantee of the status quo in the West and for the observance of conditions in the demilitarised zone were an oiiginal German oiler, it had not. even been suggested bv Britain. British. Cabinet Cabinet having reviewed the international situation at two meetings last night and this morning, no further meetings arc anticipated at present, but Ministers will be available for informal consultations if necessary while the discussions are proceeding between the representatives of the Powers signatory to the Locarno Treaties. Tn the House of Commons thi« afternoon the Home Secretary, Sir John Simon, replying on behalf of the Prime Minister, stated that should circumstances require it arrangements would be made for a debate on the foreign situation next. week.