NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE negotiations over the proposed Air Pact between the Locarno Powers need careful handling, and a great deal may depend on immediate decisions in London. Germany's reply amounted to little more than an assur- ance that she welcomed the idea of the Air Pact, and was prepared to begin discussions on it. The French Press has emphasized the absence of any reference in the reply to the wider aspects of the understandWg, in particular, disarmament in general, Germany's return to Geneva and her signature of the Eastern Security Pact. The omission is in fact obvious, but it is possible to lay too much stress on it. Germany's predominant feeling undoubtedly is that the method of direct conversations, which proved so fruitful as between Great Britain and France, should be adopted in her case also, and the proposal that British Ministers (presumably Sir John Simon and Mr. Eden) should go to Berlin to talk there is entirely reasonable. It would, of course, be possible for Baron von Neurath to come to London instead, but it would be much less satis- iactory, for no one can deal effectively with Germany who does not deal with Herr Hitler direct. If further negotia- tions are to succeed, the discussions should be shifted to Berlin forthwith, and any prior consultation between London and Paris should be conducted as unobtrusively as possible, fcfr Germany, always abnormally sensitive in such matters, would have just reason to complain if she were treated as the mere recipient of proposals already cut and dried between Great Britain and France.
