GERMAN PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 7, 9 July 1923, Page 8

GERMAN PROBLEMS

THE BREAKING OF

SILENCE

EARLY STATEMENT OF BRITISH

POLICY

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPIRIDBI.) (AUSTRALIAN - SEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 9th July, 2 p.m.)

LONDON, Bth July. Press lobbyists agree that the Cabinet will, W ithin a day or two, clearly define the British policy in reference to the Ruhr occupation and the reparations question, as £ir Leopold Amery and Mr. Neville Chamberlain h aV6 broken tho silence on the subject from the platform. A full statment by Mr. Baldwin is expected in Parliament, with possibly a full-dress debate on Friday.

The 'Daily Telegraph's" diplomatic correspondent says there is growing feeling among British statesmen that if tho Ruhr and reparations problems had been handled from the outset by the League of iNations Council in the resolute manner which has since characterised its handling of the Saar problem, progress towards a settlement might already have been achieved.. Hitherto only the reparations aspect has been considered by the Council, and that only in a decidedly timid form, based on. vague instructions, and the subject of France's veto of the problem should have been raised in the mosfc imperative form under Article JMeven, when no single Power could have vetoed the discussion. If as tho result of the senseless acts of sabotage and the equally ruthless reprisals, followed by a diplomatic rupture, the Ruhr peril becomes acute, Britain may be impelled to invoke Article Eleven

Article Eleven of the Covenant of the .League of Nations states: Any war or threat of war, whether immediately aiiectirlg any of the members of the League or not,, is.hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League-shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations. In case any such emergency should arise the Seo-retary-General shall, on the request of any member of . the League, forthwith, summon a meeting of the Council. It is also declared to be the friendly right of each,member of the League to bring to the attention of the Assembly or of the Council any circumstance whatever affecting international relation! which threatens to disturb international peace or the good understanding between nations upon which peace depends. '