LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 January 1922, Page 3

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

(Received This Day at 8.30 a.m.) GENEVA, Jan. 11 The Council of the League of Nations has opened a session, M. Rymans presiding. Forty-five States signed the international court convention and eighteen accepted compulsory jurisdiction. The inaugural session »of the court opens at the Hague on the 30th January. The Secretariat reported the German Polish negotiation over Silesia is proceeding satisfactorily.

FRENCH CABINET DISSATISFIED. >(Received This Day at 9.5 a.m.) PARIS, Jan. 11. According to the "Echo de Paris” at yesterday’s meeting of the Cabinet, a stormy request was sent M. Briand that he should not pledge himself on any matter without reference to Cabinet. Opinion in the lobby and among deputies generally is agreed that the Cannes Conference is pursuing an unsatisfactory course. A FINANCE' CORPORATION. t ßeceived This Day at 9.40 a.m.) CANNES, Jan. 11. An official memorandum gives the der tails of the reconstruction scheme by the corporation to be designated the (Central International Corporations. The headquarters are to be in London, consisting of representatives of national corporations formed by each nation in its own country. The funds of the International Corporation, in the first instance, to be equivalent to twenty millions sterling. The national corporations will bo founded simultaneously with at least twenty-five per cent of their capital paid up immediately. The funds to enable the international corporation to carry on administrative functions shall be provided by the national corporation, paying up twenty millions in proportion to their capital. M. Rathenau with fifteen financial experts has arrived.

CANNES CONFERENCE. (Received This Day at 8.30 a.m.) | LONDON, Jan. 11. j Much obscurity prevails regarding; the negotiations at Cannes-, especially i as regards the position of the Anglo-| French pact. France is anxious that j Britain should guarantee her security, j Britain is no less anxious to make it ; clear that she will not be embroiled by j any future provocative act on the part of*France, but she is willing to assist France against unprovoked aggression, without establishing an ■ irrevocable military alliance. The French press, whether rightly or wrongly informed on the nature of the pact, scent something that makes Britain’s support appear to he conditional, and not entirely m France’s favour.

f THE PACT. I c LONDON, Jan. 11 j x Hon Lloyd George made a statement rj nt Cannes regarding the Pact, . which offers France a guarantee that she and J Britain will stand together against un- ( provoked German aggression on French , soil on condition that naval competi- , tbn is avoided and that France agrees ] to confer with the British Admiralty re- f warding a programme of submarines. M. BRIAND’S DEFENCE. j (Received This Day at 1.5 p.m.) PARIS, Jan 11. ‘ < Interviewed by a. French Journalist, i M. Briand spiritedly replied to press | attackß on the proposed Anglo-French guarantee agreement. He emphatically repudiated ' 1 the idea that prance wae

asked to make sacrifices in regard to her army and Rhine occupation as the price of Britain’s pledge to help her, .in the event of-an unwarranted attack by Germany, but suggested that when the agreement was made the two Admiralties might consult together and regulate the utilisation of the respective naval forces. M.-Briand indicated that ho desired to go further towards an .Alliance than the Pact', they were now discussing, but Lloyd George was unwilling. In regard to reparations M. Briand asserted that France would not receive a centime less in 1922 than was due to her under the London agreement.

ROME, Jauriary lltb* THE MESSINA LANDSLIDE. The landslide at Messina continues, and has practically destroyed Saiifratello district. It is feared that a few stragglers were when - the slide began and have been,, caught and buried alive. another political rock. PARIS, January 11. The latest rock encountered by the Entente is Tangiers, in which connection, according to the “Temps, Cannes correspondent, Britain has adopted the Spanish viewpoint and seeks to make France accept it. The paper adds that Britain insists on linking this problem with the pact from which it concludes matters are not going too smoothly, it is pointed out that Spain desires the incorporation of Tangiers in the Spanish-Moroccan zone. France maintains Tangiers has been withdrawn from Spanish influence and placed under her special ministrations.