TORRID TALK AT LUGANO

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 539, 17 December 1928, Page 9

TORRID TALK AT LUGANO

POLAND AND GERMANY WILD WORDS IN COUNCIL (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and X.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Saturday. A message from Lugano says there was an unprecedentedly angry scene at tlic final meeting of the Council of the League of Xations. During a discussion on the protection of minorities in Upper Silesia, an altercation occurred between the Polish Foreign Minister, M. Zaleski. and the German Foreign Dr. Stresemann, in which Dr. Stresemann made a remark which many journalists construed as a threat that Germany might leave the League. Dr. Stresemann later told a reporter that he had not been as definite as that. The exact passage which created the impression that Germany intended to withdraw arose in Dr. Stresemann’s reply to M. Zaleski’s attack against the Germans in Polish Upper Silesia. "Do you want to undertake a polemic against Germany?” said Dr. Stresemann. "Do you want, by your speech, to reopen old wounds? "If the League ceases to occupy itself with the rights of minorities it will lose one of the reasons for its existence. It will no longer represent, as far as certain States are concerned, the idea which induced them to enter the League.” The incident arose when a petition from the Deutsche Volksbund was being read, complaining of the Polish authorities’ treatment of German school children. M. Zaleski jumped up and retorted, violently attacking the German minorities. PALE WITH ANGER Dr. Stresemann listened pale with anger and impatiently drumming on the arm of his chair. Immediately M. Zaleski had ceased speaking he heatedly replied, shouting at the top of his voice and thumping the table. , He characterised Zaleski’s speech as proof of enmity tp the minorities. He denied M. Zaleski’s allegations and demanded that the whole question be reviewed next session. M. Briand said he hoped the dispute would not inflame public opinion, and promised that the matter would be discussed at the next meeting of the Council. The Council rose at 4.40 p.m., and the British Foreign Minister, Sir Austen Chamberlain, left for London.