NEARLY READY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 156, 27 March 1919, Page 5

NEARLY READY

LEAGUE COVENANT AND PEACE TREATY NUMEROUS AMENDMENTS THE PACIFIC MANDATES By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright Paris, March 25. The League of Nations Committee has completed two-thirds of its draft. Amendments to Articles IX to XVI have been considered. The League Commission has received numerous amendments to the Covenant, thirty-five of which are from neutrals, and are in the nature of suggestions, chiefly in the direction of securing clearer interpretations. Two important amendments are that of the Japanese, for equality, and that of the French for the creation of an Allied Staff to secure speedy military action against a sudden aggression. The Labour and War Crimes Commissions have now completed their investigations and are engaged in drafting their final reports. Like, the Polish Commission's report, each of these reports will be subject to vigorous dissection by the Council of Ten, and much time is likely to elapse before finality is reached... The United States delegation has "agreed to an amendment to the covenant of the League, providing that agreements under the covenant shall not be construed as infringing international policies' hitherto generally recognised. It is understood that the Council of Ten has accepted the Polish Commission's report entirely, thus recognising Danzig as a Polish port. The League Committee has adopted an American amendment protecting the nations against the influx of foreign labour.

Most of the Committees of the Peace Conference have concluded their labours, and now merely wait for permission from the Supreme Council to submit their reports. The fixing of the date for the signature of the preliminary peace depends on tho completion of the work of the Economic Council's financial experts, who are endeavouring to find a method bj which Germany can pay an indemnity with the least' injury to the industries of the Allies. It is known that certain members of the Peace Conference desire the raising of the blockade ajrainst Germany, but the weight of the conference is against this view, as it is realised that the whole question of indemnities and the method of payment must first be determined.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Awn. THE JAPANESOEMANDS PRINCIPLE OF RACIAL EQUALITY. Paris, March 23. Tho chief of the Japanese Press Bureau attached to tho Peace Delegation stated in an interview that the idea of the Japanese seeking to ' amend tho League Covenant was to prevent discrimination between the aliens, who seemed advanced enough and qualified to become members of I tho League. He believed that the League could not bo solidly founded on any other basis. It must be founded in equity, because the citizens of the nations would bo compelled, if necessary,' to sacrifice life to defend the League. He believed it had never entered the minds of the Japanese delegates to utilise the amendment in order to press for a solution of the immigrant question. The amendment should not bo uont'used with immigration. There was a unanimous demand on the part of the Japanese people to have the principle of equality clearly embodied in the Coven-ant—Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn.

EX-QUEENSLAND BISHOP'S WARNING. London, March 20. Bishop Frodsham, speaking at Gloucester, eaid it was no insult to say that the Japanese would undersell, because of the conditions under which they lived. These were not likely to continuo indefinitely, but Japanese economic competition to-day would wreck all tho ideals of Australian workers regarding their honiK leisure, and family life. Unrestricted immigration would destroy the newborn ideas of a "White Australia."— Aua.-N.Z. Cablo Assn. [Bishop Frodsham was Bishop of North Queensland from 1902 until 1913, and has studied Eastern questions at first-liand.T THE PACIFIC MANDATES JAPAN AND THE SOUTHERN DOMINIONS. Paris, March 24. The discussion concerning the Pacific mandates continues for reasons which aTe at present unexplained. Mr. Hughes and Mr. Massey have accepted tho British view that the Japanese must have similar mandates for the Caroline and Marshall groups as Australia h,is for the groups south of the Equator. The Japanese have been most insistent on the point, and the British agree that a , refusal would be in.vidious and unfair. Theso mandates will forbid fortifications, but will permit the closed door Tβgarding trade, immigration, and other policies. The weakness in the case for different mandates has been Samoa, which is not contiguous to New Zealand, and must therefore be judeed on all fours with the 'Carolines. Mr. Hughes is fight""for one point of difference. He wishes the clauses relating to the junction of the islands with the mandatory countries after a petition from the natives to be eliminated 'from the Sanioan and Japanese mandates, but retained in the New Guinea, mandate, on the around that the extreme contiguity of these islands to Australia justifies this amount of different in ttfi> mandate's. Tiip problem of Nauru Island has MeiT'flnally solved by Britain, Australia and New Zealand each acquiring one-third interest in the phosphates resources of the island.-Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. TO SAFEGUARD MONROE DOCTRINE AN AMERICAN MOVE. New York, March 24. The Pan-American Union has requested the American delegates in Pans to insist on thfi insertion cf a clause in the League of Nations covenant safeguarding tho Monroe doctrine, and allowing tlio Pan-American Union or a. similar body to take care completelv of American questions—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ITALY'S THREAT TO WITHDRAW AN OFFICIAL DENIAL. Paris, March 24. It is officially denied that Italy has threatened to withdraw from the Peace Conference if Fiunie is not granted to her—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. NOT PRIZESIIF WAR THE GERMAN CABLES. Paris, March 25. The United States' view that the German cables are not prizes of war has been upheld by the committee of the Supreme Council.-Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.