LONDON DISCUSSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1940, Page 6

LONDON DISCUSSION

RELATIONS WITH BALKAN STATES EVIDENCE OF CLOSE ALLIED INTEREST. INCREASE IN TRADE EXCHANGES SOUGHT. (British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, April 18. In the House of Commons the Prime Minister (Mr N. Chamberlain) made a brief statement concerning the discussions which have been taking place between the Government and British representatives in south-eastern Europe who have now returned, or are returning to their posts.

Mr Chamberlain said: “These consultations, which have now been concluded, have afforded evidence of the close interest which the British Government takes in the countries concerned. The purpose of the discussion has been in accordance with the Government’s settled policy of the promotion of security in Balkan and Danubian countries. Not one of these States, between whom it is the desire of the Allies to see the growth of mutual understanding, has any cause to fear that the Allies or their forces will ever threaten their independence or integrity. “In the economic field, discussions have been conducted on the basis that it is the policy of his Majesty’s Government so to develop their relations with these countries as to ensure as far as possible a lasting increase in their commercial exchanges with them.”

Mr Chamberlain stated that the representatives, who had also been assisted in their discussion with the Government by the presence in London of the British Ambassadors in Rome and Moscow, had an opportunity of hearing from Lord Swinton some account of the new commercial corporation and the work which the corporation intends to carry out in order to develop and place permanently on a broader basis trade exchanges between this country and the south-eastern European states.