REAL STEP FORWARD

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 9

REAL STEP FORWARD

AVERTING DANGER

NATIONS DRAWING APART

(British Official Wireless.J

(Received August 1, 11.50 a.m.)

RUGBY, July 31.

The House of Commons debated foreign affairs on the motion for thai adjournment for the summer recess.

Lord Cranborne, Under-Secretary for. Foreign Affairs, replying to the discussion, said that recognition of the Italian annexation of Abyssinia was primarily a matter for the League of Nations itself, but so far as hia Majesty's Government was concerned, it had no present intention of. recognising the annexation of Abyssinia.

Referring to a member who had declared war was inevitable, Lord Cranborne said, "I do not think war is inevitable, and I hope there are many members who do not think it is inevitable." What was true was that the general situation during recent months had perceptibly deteriorated. There had been signs that the nations were drawing apart, and there, was danger of blocs forming which might become suspicious of each other and 'arm against each other. That would be a situation fraught with the utmost danger. It would be too much to claim that recent conversations had averted! that danger, but they had checked op helped to check the tendency in that direction. An-invitation had been sent to Italy and to Germany'to take part in further conversations. If that invitations were accepted, as they all hoped it would be, a real step forward would have been taken.

As a result of the conversations between the British, -French, and Belgian: delegations in London, on July 23 it was decided to invite Germany and Italy to join in a Jive-Power meeting as soon as it could be conveniently held, with a view, to negotiating a new agreement to take the place of the Rhine Pact of Locarno and to resolve,through the collaboration of all concerned, the situation created by the German occupation, of the Ehineland. "If progress can be made at this meeting," the resolution stated, "other matters affecting European peace will necessarily come under discussion, In such circumstances it would be natural to look forward to widening of the area of discussion in such a manner as to facilitate, with the collaboration; of other interested Powers, a settlement of those problems a solution of which is essential, to the peace of Europe."