24 AUGUST 1929, Page 1

News of the Week The Hague Conference Ay HEN we write

on Thursday The Hague Conference is still in the balance. The one good sign is that Mr. Snowden has not packed up and departed, as rumour said he thought of doing at the end of last week. On the contrary, he has told a correspondent that he means to have a decision. But one sort of " decision " would be a breakdown. We cannot bring ourselves to believe that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and Mr. Snowden really think that a breakdown would be a small matter. It is already a too piquant situation that a Labour Government should seem to be risking disaster to a European Conference in a manner which would have brought on Sir Austen Chamberlain charges of obstinacy and callousness. Mr. Snowden is said to be without guile, but he cannot be so innocent of guile as to think it possible that a just cause should always:triumph, merely because it is just, in an assembly representing an emor- mous variety of interests and opinions.