MR EDEN REVIEWS PROGRESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 25, 22 October 1937, Page 5

MR EDEN REVIEWS PROGRESS

(Britiah Official WireloBB.)

Obstacles to International Appeasement ITALY'S WELCOME OFFER

(Received 22, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct, 21. Parliament xeassembled to-day, and in the House of Commons the Foreign Minister, Mr. Anthony Eden, opened the debate on international affairs. The House was crowded. Mr. Eden said that at the end of Tuesday's meeting of the Non-Inter-vention Committee, he would confess, he saw no alternative but that the next day the committee should rbport failure, but at the elovonth hour had come a new and welcome contribution by Italy. The chief diffieulty regarding the withdrawal of volunteers from Spain, Mr. Eden added, had been the relation in timo between such withdrawals and tho grant of belligerent rights. On this issue both Italy and Germany had substantially modified their attitudes. The second stubborn diffieulty had been .the proportions of . withdrawals from either side, on which, without proof of numbers, it had been virtually impossible to reach an agreeement here, too, Italy had proposed a solution which should be acceptable. The British Government was itself in full accord with this. The British Government would spare no endeavour to see that progress, once it was begun, would proceed speedily unchecked. In referring to the Mediterranean, Mr. Eden said: "Our positkm is simply that we mean to maintain right-of-way on this main arterial road. We had never asked, and do not ask to-day , that that right should be exclusive. "The Government is conscious that foreign intervention in Spain is responsible for preventing aU progress towards international aP" peasCment. Anyone who wanted to see how compietely had its effect has been should have been at the League Assembly this year." During a brief debate in the House of Lords, Lord Plymouth made a statement on similar lines to that of Mr Eden." Lord Barnby, dealing with suggestions to boycott Japanese goods, said that a boycott generally rebounded to. the disadvantage of those proposing it. Lqrd Strabolgi said that A1 Capone would have refused to sit on the NonIntcrvention Committee — it would have been too crooked for hitn.