PEACE PACTS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1925, Page 2

PEACE PACTS

PROTOCOL J KTTISONED. CY TKI.EGItAI*n —PRESS ASSN., COrgRIGHT. LONDON. -March o. “The Morning Post” says: “It is no seciet ill Ministerial circles that the Geneva Protocol is dead. It will he .Mr Chamberlain’s duty to state at Geneva that the Government is of opinion that tile document is incapable o. amendment. The exchange ol views with the Dominions is expected to he a lengthy process hut the policy when evolved, will he a real Umpire policy.

All! CHAMBER LAI NS PROGRAMME LONDON, Ala rcii o. It is expected Air Chamberlain (the Foreign .Minister) will make an important speech in the House ol Commons to-day regarding the Geneva Protocol and security. According to iiis a:rangemonls he will go to Paris on Friday to converse with Al. Ileiriott and thence to Geneva on Saturday. Air Chamberlain presided at two Cabinet meetings yesterday in the absence of Air Baldwin whose aged mother i seriously ill. Lord Balfour was present at the Premier’s request.

All! BALFOUR CONSULTED. LONDON March 4. The -‘Daily Telegraph's” diplomatic correspondent says:— 1 heie have been many memoranda, circulating in < fiicial circles, regarding a substitute Pact, in place of the Geneva Protocol, hut the Government lias come to no conclusion. It lias not made up its minil. Still less have the Dominions approved or disapproved of the new policy. I lie Cabinet has listened to an exposition oi it hv Lord Ballour. who was specially invited to address the members as an elder statesman. Amendments are pioposcil by the Committee of lmIKwial Defence, which will l:e submitted to the Dominion Governments immediately. They are far-reaching in character, and they take the heart out of the Geneva Proto;ol, as all the vital articles are deleted, or substantially modified. The “Daily Telegraph” continues: As an alternative policy, there are throe conceptions, which still require t i lie harmonised, within the British Cabinet viz: (1) Favouring a direct pact with France and Belgium. (2) Favouring a policy of isolation, without any entanglements in Europe. (3) A mutual pact between Britain, France. Italy and Germany. The “Telegraph” adds:—Air Chamberlain (Foreign Secretary) is understood to he in favour of the first alternative. He believes Britain owes guarantees to France and Belgium owing to the Anglo-American peace pact of 1910. A variant, designed as a compromise to win over the Dominions, would he no binding pact, but a system of consul tat ion between the British, French and Belgian general staffs for the purpose of countering fresh German aggression. The isolationist school is a small minority if the .Ministers, and it contends that the Dominion feeling is against entangling alliances on the Continent, and Lliat the Dominion's would not adhere to such an alliance without the assent of their Parliaments which those Parliaments will not give. The third school includes 1 the majority of the Cabinet and the : Balfour school. It hopes to embrace 1 -Britain and the Dominions. None ol ’ these schools of thought are prepared r and harmonise the conceptions of both - to guarantee the frontiers oi Poland ’ mid C’zeclio-Sluvakia.

G KRAI A NT'S OFFER. LONDON, March -)

The rumours current that Germany is willing to enter a pact with the Allied Powers are eonlirined in a Paris report stating Ambassador Slimmer had informed the B'.itish (lovernmenl to this effect on January 30. All Chamberlain replied the offer should he addressed to Paris. .Minister Hoesch saw At. llerriot on February 24 and made an identical offer. Since then the British and French Governments have been in comimimran'.iu.

It is understood that Germany offers to enter a. pact of guarantee with Britain. France. Belgium, and if lie: ess ary Italy, besides concluding supplementary treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia. and referring the difficulties in the latter cases to The Hagi e. LONDON. March 5.

Tlie ■Times" says Germany’s proposal ought to make the pact idea more palatable in Britain and the Dominions.

The British Cabinet is known to border on guaranteeing the French and Belgian frontiers Imt old pact plans arouse little enthusiasm. II Germany would be an active partner m such arrangement, the pro) osal should get careful consideration. allied aaibassadous. PARIS. March 4. The Ain bur,sudor's Conference has requested Marshal Foch. to furnish nto"o piocise details ol Germany s default. in view of Ills Committee’s suggestions to assure stricter military control and the fulfilment of the Versailles Treaty. It is semi-oflicia,l!y stated that the Ambassadors will ml reach a decision before the German Presidential election (at the end o this month). BRITISH DOMINIONS POSITION. LONDON. March ■!. The Prime .Minister in the House of Commons, answering at question-lime, said Im was not considering the formation oi a Foreign Affair,-, committee r.n the lines adapted by other Powers, containing Dominion representatives. nor had he any indication that such proposal would he acceptable to the Dominions. He was seriously considering closer co-operation with the Dominions in foreign affairs. Re air and naval arrmaments, he was confident the c .il lusions of the 1923 Tutorial Conference still re] resentei. the Dominion views, and those ol all Governments in the I'.mprre.

A questioner asked whether, in view of the fact that the situation had changed, and Mr Chamberlain was go ing to Geneva CoiilerencO, the Dominions would be able to represent theii view« in the event of the Government rejecting the Geneva protocol as was reported.

Mr Baldwin replied he considered the Dominions were in pretty 'lose toil'll with Britain on all these mat-

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