LOCARNO POWERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 85, 9 April 1936, Page 7

LOCARNO POWERS

FRESH CONSULTATIONS MEETING IN GENEVA STAFF TALKS NEXT WEEK [ British Official Wireless. ] Received April 8, 5.5 p.m. RUGBY, April 7. The Foreign Secretary left London this afternoon for Geneva, where he will attend to-morrow’s meeting of the Committee of Thirteen. The French foreign Minister will also be in Geneva, and the Belgian Premier is expected to arrive there within the next few days. As Mr. Eden explained in last night’s House of Commons debate, it is proposed to take advantage of this opportunity for informal consultations with regard to the European situation and the German memorandum of April 1. which is still under examination in London. If these arrangements hold, the Foreign Secretary will be joined in Geneva by Lord Halifax, who ever since the events of March 7 has been associated with the discussions which have taken place both in Paris and London with the other Locarno Powers. There will be a debate in the House of Lords to-morrow on foreign affairs, in which Lord Halifax will take part. The Lord Privy Seal will speak early so that he may take the night aeroplane to Paris. The German envoy. Herr von Ribbentrop. who is still in London, will probably return to Germany to-morrow. It has now been arranged that the General Staff talks provided for in the draft proposals of the four Locarno Powers shall begin in London on Wednesday, April 15. The War Minister (Mr. A. DuffCooper), in reply to a question in the House of Commons regarding the staff conversations, said that as far as the War Office was concerned they would be conducted solely through the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence (Major-General J. G. Dill). _"Ll' Tg.