COUNT SFORZA AND LOCARNO
[To the Editor of THE Srr:cr.vr•on.J note that Sir Austen Chamberlain does not assert that Count Sforza's assertions (regarding Sir Austen's reception of the German draft of the plan which later became the Locarno Pact) are false. Ile merely says that he " been misinformed," and he adds that the time has not yet come to tell " in detail the history of this negotiation."
-I find the following in 'Volume III of Lord D'Abernon's Diary, published six years ago, several years after he had left the Embassy at Berlin : " The proposal (Locarno) was deliberately couched in a form that would soften refusal if refusal came—as in fart it diet come at the outset. The British Government: was not asked to accept or refuse the proposed pact. It was requested merely to give advice as to the best form in which such a proposal could be brought by Germany before the Allied Powers. Even in this vague and mitigated guise the proposal met with so chilly a reception in London that it was nearly killed on the spot. The Foreign Office pointed out that negotiation on so vital a matter could not be conducted with one Ally without the full knowledge of the other. Chamberlain almost resented the fart that the original question had been directed to him alone, regarding it as an attempt to seduce him from the path of loyalty to France."
Lord d'Abernon goes on to describe how the pact was saved. The German Government had the courage to send Ilerriot the text of the Note direct on February 9th, 1925, and the French Government gave it a much warmer welcome than Sir Austen.
On page 195 Lord D'Abernon writes :
" On the other hand the German methods are criticised as being provocative and suggestive of distrust at every stage. I can hardly believe that Chamberlain really holds these views, certainly in this connexion any abuse of Stresemann is unjustified. Stresemann might retort that ho made the original pact proposal and that London went through a stage of considerable hesitancy and difficulty before adopting it."
As one who had an exceptional opportunity to follow negotiations at the time, I can only confirm Count Sforza's general thesis. Ile is, of course, inaccurate in saying that Sir Austell discarded the draft of the plan in February, 1925, but in so far as he represents our Foreign Secretary as hostile to Locarno at the outset and later, I can only support him. Though he altered his attitude, I remember that Sir Austen was sceptical to the very end about the wisdom of the pact.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
OUT'S.
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