LEAGUE DEBATE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1933, Page 12

LEAGUE DEBATE

.SIMON AND DOLLFUSS

PLEA FOR "LITTLE AUSTRIA"

LIVE AND LET LIVE

United Tress Association—By Electric Tele-

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(Received September 28, 2.30 p.m.)

GENEVA, September 27.

The League Assembly's debate was set going today by tho two biggest draws among tho whole of tho delegations. The first speaker was Sir John SiniOn, carrying all ! tho prestige of Britain's leading delegate, and then followed Austria's "Pocket Chancellor" Dr. Dollfuss.

Sir John Simon spoke for half an hour in. a quiet, expository manner. His speech was closely followed, but not acclaimed with enthusiasm. All the same it must have been recognised as necessarily lacking in concrete propositions. On the contAry, Dr. Dollfuss roused warm demonstrations as, eschewing a challenging note ,to tho Hitler representatives in the front row, ho appealed that little Austria, hemmed in by hostile tariffs, should bo allowed to live; He: said that Austria was determined to maintain an independent existence at all costs, and appealed to tho League to encourage her in this laudable resolve by tho exercise of its higli moral authority. Dr. Dollfuss spoke in German. The Germans sat motionless throughout, though they conceded afterwards that Dollfuss was not as bitter as they expected. - , Referring to'disarmament, Sir John Simon said they wero endeavouring to remove.all obstacles and bring forward a draft convention in the form most likely,to meet the present situation. The work was being pushed with great earnestness; in the belief that the first overriding .purpose must be to agree upon a convention. He deprecated the idea that refuge could be taken in a repeated adjournment.