19 JULY 1924, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE London Conference met in the Secretary of State's room at the Foreign Office at eleven o'clock on Wednesday morning. Once again the fate of Europe lies on the conference table, and the Allied statesmen propose and counter-propose across it. It is now eighteen months since the last great Allied Conference met in Paris on New Year's Day, 1923: before it Mr. Bonar Law laid his ill-fated plan. With the great issues which the present Conference will face, and the heavy responsi- bilities it will bear, we deal in our leading columns. A determined effort is evidently to be made to keep the Conference to the business of applying the Dawes Report. We give our reasons elsewhere why we fear that this attempt must fail. Here we . need only wish the Conference God-speed.