CONFLICT AT GENEVA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1938, Page 8

CONFLICT AT GENEVA

NEW ZEALAND BROUGHT FORWARD IN COMMONS DEBATE

Agreement with Italy Defended by Sir John Simon

NO MATERIAL ALTERATION IN SPAIN . By Telegraph—Press Association. —Copyright. (Recd This Day, 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 19. Initiating a debate on foreign affairs in the House of Commons, Mr Wedgwood Benn (Labour), alluding to Abyssinia, said: “We found ourselves in a short, sharp conflict with one of the Dominions. New Zealand was forced on a question of principle to challenge the Mother Country. Let the British Government remember that the League is the basis of the British Commonwealth. There is no other document which binds all the Dominions save only the League Covenant.” Mr E.,L. Fleming (Conservative) said the Empire was bound together long before the League came into existence. ' Sir John Simon (Chancellor of the Exchequer), said the central fact explaining the Government’s course was the extreme Anglo-Italian tension in the Middle East last year, constituting a situation full of gravity and menace. Mr Chamberlain’s crime was that he did his best to cure that situation. There was considerable interruption when Sir John Simon declared that the Opposition were almost alone in Europe in denouncing the Anglo-Italian Agreement. He added that pledges and assurances given by the Italians in the course of the negotiations had been fully implemented. There had been no material alteration in the situation in Spain, according to Government information, due to Italian reinforcements. CONDITIONS OF RECOGNITION. Sir John Simon added that the Government claimed that it had acted in accordance with the rules of collective action regarding Abyssinia. Twenty States had recognised Italian sovereignty before Viscount Halifax went to Geneva. “We consequently had the right .according to our League duties,” Sir John Simon added, “to decide whether to recognise or otherwise. It is incorrect to say we had done so. On the contrary, we had said a settlement in Spain was an essential part of a general settlement in Europe and must accompany the recognition of the Italian' conquest. It has never been any part of the bargain, or in our contemplation, that Italian action should be unilateral in respect to Spain, regardless of what others might do.” » The Government motion for the adjournment was carried by 180 votes to 95.