CONCILIATION PACT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21214, 10 September 1940, Page 8

CONCILIATION PACT

U.S.A. AND NEW ZEALAND EXTENSION OF TREATY (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Monday The conciliation pact between the United States and New Zealand, referred to in a recent cablegram, was in effect an extension of the existing Anglo-United States Peace Commission Treaty of 1914, said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, in an interview tonight. This treaty provided for the setting up of a permanent commission of inquiry to investigate and report upon any disputes between the two countries which ordinary diplomatic means might fail to bring to an amicable solution. Although New Zealand was bound by the provisions of the original treaty, the new international and constitutional status which the Dominions now occupy rendered it necessary to provide for the treaty’s extension to the Dominions of the British Commonwealth by means of supplementary treaties now signed. The treaty will continue in force for five years, and will remain in force thereafter until one of the parties should give notice of termination. “I should like to add,” said Mr Fraser, “that New Zealand’s accession and signature were authorised by Mr Savage in July last year. The subsequent delay in arranging for simultaneous signatures by representatives of the British Commonwealth Governments in Washington has no doubt been due to more pressing matters.”