PROBLEMS IN EUROPE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 95, 16 January 1935, Page 9

PROBLEMS IN EUROPE

New Opportunity For Settlement BRITISH FEELING Germany Has Essential Part to Play PEACE PROSPECTS BETTER (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, January 14. Sir John Simon, British Foreign Secretary, returned to London last night in order to attend a Cabinet meeting which is being hdld to-day, instead of Wednesday, to enable the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. to fulfil various public engagements in the North of England this week. The. newspapers anticipate that Cabinet will be mainly occupied with foreign affairs in relation to the proceedings at Geneva, the disarmament problem, and the forthcoming London visit of M. Flandin, French Premier, and M. Laval, Foreign Minister. Sir John Simon will incidentally be able to report on the Rome agreements in the light of a long conversation he had with M. Laval at Geneva. The “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent says that the" British Government believes that a new opportunity is about to present itself for an all-round settlement of European post-war problems, and that in this view it is supported by the Italian and French Governments. The main objects which the British Ministers seek to advance, says the correspondent, are the further pacification of Europe by the perfection and extension, as necessary, of the existing peace structure anti the conclusion of an international agreement for arms limitation on the basis of giving actual recognition to German equality of status. It is pointed out that considerable progress has been made with the effective security structure, the prospect of which has been improved by the Franco-Italian accord, the improved situation in Eastern Europe, Russia’s entry into the League, and other factors. It is emphasised that Germany has an essential part to play in the plans for European pacification. Incidentally, some discussion and interest have been aroused by a suggestion initiated by “The Times” that an arms convention might be approached by way of a declaration by the Powers benefiting from the Treaty of Versailles that Chapter Five of the Treaty, containing military, naval, and air clauses, should no longer operate against any signatory Power on condition that a general agreement on limitation of armaments and the full participation of Germany in the collective European scheme were reached. “The 'Times’s” Geneva correspondent says that if these conditions are borne in mind, the suggestion is welcomed in Geneva as a useful contribution to the renewed examination of the problems of disarmament and security which will begin with the French Ministers’ visit to London.