§ 25. Mr. A. Hendersonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is still the view of His Majesty's Government that the conclusion of an Eastern Pact between Poland, Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States and Finland is one of the cardinal factors in the field of European progress, as stated in the House on 1st August, 1935, by the then Foreign Secretary?
§ Viscount CranborneWhen the then Foreign Secretary made in August, 1935, the statement referred to by the hon. Member the Treaty of Locarno was still in full force. The repudiation of this treaty by Germany in the following year has modified the situation, and the efforts of His Majesty's Government have since then been directed in the first instance to restoring the position in Western Europe. But, as indicated in the communique of 23rd July last, it was expected that progress in the negotiations for a new Western Agreement would lead to the widening of the area of the discussions so as to include the solution of other European problems. As regards the negotiations for the so-called Eastern Pact which was in question in August, 1935, I would refer the hon. Member to the account given in Command Paper 5143. It is still, however, the view of His Majesty's Government that the elimination of friction and suspicion between the various countries of Eastern Europe is one of the cardinal factors in the field of European progress.