IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15360, 8 October 1923, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

LORD CURZON'S SPEECH.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUHR.

LAUSANNE TREATY DEFENDED. Australian and N.Z. Cable fissn. LONDON, October 6. The Marquis Curzon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, occupied three hours of the sitting of the Imperial Conference yesterday morning reviewing the situation all over the world. He said: "We welcome our Allies' victory in the Ruhr, if victory it was," but pointed out that, as the British Government had anticipated,

this produced the beginning of internal disruption in. Germany. This disruption was not merely an ominous symptom, but had portentious economic significance, as it meant the ultimate disappearance of the debtor himself. Lord Curzon added that Britain awaited the next proposals' from France. Britain was quite ready to receive and discuss in a friendly spirit the measures France now proposed to take. He emphasised Britain's right to bo consulted, and expressed the opinion that the German surrender should have been made three months ago, but he suspected that no German Government at that timo could have survived the surrender. It was at present uncertain whether Dr. Strcsemann, who had had the courage and wisdom to

tako this step, would survive. Were we, however, any nearer settlement? Would reparations begin to flow in? Lord Curzon intimated that the Government thought the time for discussion between the Allies' had come. He said he had not concealed the British view in his conversations with the French Ambassador, and it had the approval of Mr Stanley Baldwin, who recently did so much by his visit to Paris to recreate a friendly atmosphere after the rather heated discharge of rival guns. The German Government, so far as he could gather, was sincere «in its intentions', and had taken the steps required. Longing For Peaceful Issue.

"Though it might be too much to expect that abandonment of resistance would follow instantly by enthusiastic co-operation," said the Marquis, "our position at Cologne gives us the right to be consulted in any local arrangement that may be proposed, and that position we have no intention of abandoning. Our reparation claim —willing as we have been to pare it down in the interests of a settlement—renders it impossible that any such settlement could be reached without our cooperation. Our stake in the economic recovery of Europe, which in some respects affects us more than Germany's immediate neighbour, makes us long for a peaceful issue, and we have already showed willingness to contribute to that issue by unexampled concessions." The Marquis Curzon said no sane person ever expected that Germany would be able to fully, pay the £6,000,000,000 fixed as reparations. The commis-sion said it could not be denied that the sanguine expectations with whioh the Ruhr occupation began had largely been falsified by the results. The Government more than once indicated its willingness to discuss the security with the French Government. Position in Near East.

In the only other part of his speech published Lord Curzon vigorously defended the British policy in the Near East. He said that the Lausanne Treaty was not such as it might have been had the Powers maintained a united front on all points, but was the best obtainable in the circumstances. He sketched his efforts to end the illjudged, ill-fated Turoo-Greck hostilities, and said his task was not rendered easier by the Francklin-Bouillon agreement, which encouraged Turkish pretension. Britain alono saved the situation in the crisis after the Turkish victory over Greece and prevented an invasion of Europe. He claimed that the solution regarding the straits was

eminently favourable to British Imperial interests. He thought the.final restoration of peace in the Near East, freedom of the straits, and the liberation of the entire block of Arab countries enhanced the prestige of Britain in Turkey. Altogether the appeasement of all Moslem countries sufficiently justified British Labours at Lausanne. A very heavy task awaited Turkey. He was of opinion that she would experience great disillusionments and many disappointments, and that some of the fruits she claimed to have garnered -would turn out to be Dead Sea apples in her mouth. But in making the great experiment she started with a complete absence of resentment on our part, and a sincere expression of our goodwill. Lord Curzon remarked that when the Turks realised he would break up the conference sooner than cede the point relative to the transfer and safeguarding, of the sacred soil of Gallipoli, which was stained with the blood of Empire, they gave way.