§ 36. Mr. MABANEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will now propose to the signatory Powers to the final act of the Lausanne Conference that the time has now come to ratify the agreement with Germany; and whether he will further propose to the Governments of Belgium, France, and Italy that the conditions precedent to ratification detailed in No. 1 of the further documents relating to the settlement reached at the Lausanne Conference [Cmd. 4129] should now be waived so that ratification may become immediately possible, and thus final authority be given to an instrument at present merely provisional in character and capable of being disturbed by the independent act of any one of six governments?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINNo, Sir. His Majesty's Government are not prepared to depart from the view, stated in the reply given to my hon. Friend on 7th November last, that the ratification of the Lausanne Agreement is bound up with the problem of War Debts as a whole.
§ Mr. MABANEIn view of the fact that the international situation would be eased
§ Mr. DAVID MASONIs there any prospect of the right hon. Gentleman renewing the operations of the new Sinking Fund during the current year?
§ Following are the figures:
§ if this anomaly were regularised, would my right hon. Friend give his reasons for not proposing to regularise the anomaly in the way suggested?