AIR LOCARNO

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 February 1935, Page 2

AIR LOCARNO

PLANS WELCOMED. BY SOVIET RUSSIA. MOSCOW, Thursday. The British and French Ambassadors submitted the proposed air pact to the Soviet Government, which replies welcoming the proposals. The Soviet Government says it has long realised that the impossibility of achieving complete disarmament and the difficulty of controlling limiting armaments having been demonstrated, the only means of counteracting the danger of a fresh conflict is a system of regional pacts, providing mutual assistance for those States sincerely striving for peace.-

The Soviet Notp continues that Britain, France, Russia, Italy,"the Little Entente and the Balkan Entente, aggregating a population of 365,000,000, or 70 per cent, of Europe, favour such pacts, therefore it is hoped that acceptance of the London agreement will be a material stop toward the consolidation of European peace. The Soviet is also inclined to see recognition therein of the impossibility of localising a war starting in any part of Europe. The Note declares that European peace can be achieved only through all the regional pacts mentioned in the London agreement. Any disregard of this or that agreement would be an encouragement for a breach of the peace. The political correspondent of "The Times,’ ’ a London cable states, says it is understood that the Soviet intimated that it would bo glad to -welcome British Ministers at Moscow if such a visit could conveniently be arranged.