NO POWER TO SIGN

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16654, 20 November 1925, Page 5

NO POWER TO SIGN

GERMANS' AT LOCARNO.

MINISTER’S STATEMENT.

CAUSES STIR IN BERLIN.

A German Minister has caused a sensation in Berlin by declaring that the German delegation to Locarno had no power to initial the Treaty. It was understood when the delegates left Berlin they were merely to participate in a plain and ordinary dlscusbotween the Foreign Ministers concerned. Ho states that the Gorman Ministers In Berlin were not aware that the agreement was to be initialled until the day fixed for the event, and their demand that the initialling should be postponed did not reach Locarno until too late.

(Reuter.) (Received Nov. 20, 9.30 a.m.) BERLIN, November 19.

A sensation was caused as the result of a disclosure by Herr Brauns, the Minister of Labour and leading Centrist, that the German delegation to Locarno had no Cabinet mandate to initial the pact document. Herr Brauns and Herr Itho, senior Minister, left Berlin during the absence of Dr. Luther and Herr Stresemann.' They declare that the day the pact was initialled an official telegram was despatched to Locarno demanding th« postponement of the initialling, but it arrived too late.

“We originally thought that at Locaryo there would merely be a plain ordinary discussion between the Foreign Ministers concerned. Even when the members of the delegation departed we still thought the discussion would not be binding. The members of the Cabinet remaining in Berlin first heard of the initiallig proposal on the day on which it occurred.”

The Nationalist Press have seized on the incident demanding a thorough ivestigation of the whole facts, but it is noteworthy that the Centrists’ Congress, at which Herr Brauns made the statement concluded by passing s resolution ( in favour of the Government’s policy.