GERMAN “SIDE-STEPPING.”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 3 July 1925, Page 4

GERMAN “SIDE-STEPPING.”

A cablegram which we publish to-day states that the Security Pact is provoking stormy discussions among the members of the Reichstag’S Foreign Relations Committee, One of the matters upon which the Allies are fairly unanimous is that of German disarmament, and it is this also which is causing considerable opposition in the Reichstag to the Security Pact. A treaty presupposes good faith on the part of each signatory. France is not likely to enter into any agreement with Germany while she has reason to doubt the latter’s Honesty. And France’s,suspicions, so far from being allayed, havebeen sharpened by Tecent developments. In March, 1923, the British Government twice assured the House of Commons that Germany was effectively disarmed. The Inter-Allied Commission of Control had seen to that. 1 Thera f,tor dll supervision creased for eighteen indpths; Then

tlie Commission conducted another investigation, and in December last presented its report to the Council of Ambassadors. The immediate consequence -was that tlie evacuation of Cologne, which was to have been carried out early in the New Year, was postponed indefinitely. The obvious inference was that the Commission had' made some disquieting discoveries. Recent demonstrated that 'Germany was 1 ‘ side-stepping'’ * the disarmament clauses. France, however, has been so insistent that Germany shall abide strictly by those conditions that the German Government has been forced to fall’ into line. Hence the trouble in the Reiehta g.