"SETTLEMENT IN SPAIN"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1938, Page 5

"SETTLEMENT IN SPAIN"

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER QUESTIONED No Prior Agreement as to Meaning of Phrase CONFIDENTIAL EXCHANGE OF VIEWS WITH ITALY (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.47 a.m.) RUGBY, July 25. The “settlement in Spain” attached as a condition to the bringing into operation of the Rome Agreements was again the subject of questions in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister (Mr _N. Chamberlain) gave a negative answer to a question whether, during the negotiations, the British and Italian representatives came to an understanding on what was implied by the phrase, but mentioned in another reply that since the conclusion of the agreements there had been a confidential exchange of views between the two Governments on the subject. * Mr Chamberlain declared, however, that he had never committed himself to a complete or even a partial definition of the phrase. ' A Labour member inquired if Italy, therefore, was as much in the t, dark as to the intentions of Britain as, according to this member, the ; House of Commons was. Mr Chamberlain: “I do not know whether that is so or riot. Ido not know their state of mind.” . Captain Wedgwood Benn asked if the position was that, during the Recess, Mr Chamberlain would be at liberty to implement the agreements by putting his own interpretation on “settlement.” Mr Chamberlain replied that there was no change in the situation and that Britain was entitled to interpret the condition which it had itself imposed. ' Mr Chamberlain recalled an answer some days ago, in which he said he did not exclude the possibility that the House of Commons • might be called together to consider the matter.