A.—5d

7. The preceding paragraph explains as requested the import and object of the third paragraph of section V. In fact, if arbitration treaties were not concluded between Germany and the Allies who do not participate in the Rhineland Pact, this latter pact might be invoked by Germany to impede any assistance given to those Allied States in conformity with the Covenant of the League of Nations. 8. In placing the whole of the guarantee pacts and agreements under the auspices of the League of Nations, it is not our object to create for the other members of the League of Nations the same obligations as for the signatories of the agreements. Our intention was merely to place the agreements to be come to under the high moral authority of the League of Nations in order to enable the League, in case of need, to establish the legitimacy of action undertaken in accordance with the terms of these agreements and the conformity of such action with the Covenant, and the very principles on which the Covenant rests. May 22, 1925.

No. 6. Mr. Austen Chamberlain to the Marquess of Crewe (Paris). My Lord, — Foreign Office, May 28, 1925. I have received your Lordship's despatch of the 13th May, enclosing the draft of the reply which the French Government propose to send to the proposals for a pact of security made to them by Germany on the 9th February last. The subsequent explanations of this draft reply so courteously furnished by the French Government through their Ambassador in London at my request have greatly assisted His Majesty's Government in its examination, and I am now in a position to give their reasoned comments on the document, which they have considered with all the care that the importance of the subject demands. 2. It will be convenient to set out first of all the point of view from which His Majesty's Government have themselves approached the German proposals and the principles by which they have been guided in examining both those proposals and the suggested French reply. 3. The point of departure is to be found in the reasoned statement which I made on behalf of His Majesty's Government to the Council of the League of Nations on the 12th March last, in which the view was expressed that the best way to carry out the programme of security, arbitration, and disarmament was, with the co-operation of the League of Nations, to supplement the Covenant by making special arrangements in order to meet special needs. These arrangements should be purely defensive in character, and should be framed in the spirit of the Covenant, working in close harmony with the League and under its guidance. 4. Secondly, in my speech in the House of Commons on the 24th March I indicated that, while His Majesty's Government could not accept an extension to every frontier of obligations of the most serious kind, they could properly undertake such obligations in that sphere with which British interests are most closely bound up, namely, the frontier between Germany and her western neighbours. 5. The basic principle, then, by which His Majesty's Government are guided in their approach to the matter now under discussion is, and must be, that any new obligation, which they undertake shall be specific and limited to the maintenance of the existing territorial arrangement on the western frontier of Germany. His Majesty's Government are not prepared to assume fresh obligations elsewhere in addition to those already devolving upon them as signatories of the Covenant of the League of Nations and of the Peace Treaties. At the same time, it may be well to repeat that, in seeking means to strengthen the position in the west, His Majesty's Government do not themselves question, or give any encouragement to others to question, the other provisions of the treaties which form the basis of the existing public law of Europe. 6. With these preliminary declarations I turn to the French draft. In the first place, His Majesty's Government would wish to express their appreciation of its conciliatory tone, which is in complete harmony with the spirit that inspires the policy of His Majesty's Government. The evident desire which it displays to maintain peace and to facilitate the peaceful solution of disputes is a happy augury of the success of the negotiations .to which it forms a preliminary. 7. The substance of the note, however, goes in certain respects considerably beyond what His Majesty's Government could for their part endorse consistently with the principles enunciated above. Section IV, for example, contemplates the conclusion between the signatories of the proposed Rhineland Pact of arbitration treaties which would apply to all disputes of whatever nature, and would be guaranteed jointly and severally by the signatories of the Rhineland Pact. Section V suggests that the same joint and several guarantee should be given by the same powers to similar arbitration treaties between Germany and States other than the signatories of the Rhineland Pact. 8. I hasten to repeat what I have already said in my statement of the 12th March to the Council of the League of Nations at Geneva, that His Majesty's Government naturally look with sympathy on any effort to improve the international machinery for maintaining the peace of the world. They therefore welcome any treaties of arbitration or conciliation which the continental Powers concerned may be prepared to enter into, provided only that such treaties do not affect the rights and obligations attaching to membership of the League of Nations under the Covenant. But the position of His Majesty's Government is somewhat different from that of those Powers. In view of the position of the British Empire, with its world-wide responsibilities, His Majesty's Government are bound to regard the question of participation in treaties of this description from a different point of view to that of Powers whose interests lie mainly or exclusively in Europe. And as regards the proposals for the

6