The speaker went on to say that. the question of the definition of territorial waters must be left for international settlement, but we had secured a satisfactory fisheries agreement.
Mr. Ponsonby paid a tribute to AM, Rakovsky's intense wish to reach settlement, He declared that the Government had not attempted to reach a settlement in figures, but to establish machinery with a' view to reaching the necessary settle-mont. He declared further that the settlement was an instance of the Government's international policy to avoid acrimonious discussion on petly points, and to seck settlement on broad lines, based on conciliation and ce-operation so as to convince European peoples that the Government at least were using their power to establish peace and brotherhood. ment was made by Mr. J. R. Clynes, Lord Privy Seal, who apologized for Mr. Ponsonby's' inability to make the promised statement at the moment because modifications were necessary owing to the fact that. the Russians had signed at the last moment.
Mr. Ponsonby, subsequently an-
"An Litter Farce."
Later.
The speeches made in the House of Commons to-day in the Russian debate were mostly ironical character. Mr. Ronald MeNeill (Conservative) "congratulated Inv. Ponsonby on the fact that four months' onerous negotiations had houncing the agreement, stated that 4 commercial treaty and a general treaty were involved. An unusual departure in connexion with the commercial treaty was that we took resulted in the information that the Soviet and the bondholders had agreed to negotiate. He said the whole thing was an utter farce, and the promise to guarantee a account @f the Soriet's monopoly of loan was a scandal.
Mr, Lloyd George's unsparing denunciation of the treaty, which he described as a fake, finds considerable, though apparently not ni animous, party support. The Conservatives, on the other hand, are condemnation of' the treaty.
Adjournment of the debate was tressed to enable Mr. MacDonald to ittend and address the House today.
'A peculiar fact was tht, subsequent to Mr. Ponsonby's speech in the House of Commons, Viscount Haldane, the Lord Chancellor, questioned by Marquess Curzon in the House of Lords, professed ignorance that any agreements had been reached.
The Government's only friends in the morning press are the "Daily News," which is mildly sympathetic, and the "Daily Herald," which is in high feather.—Rewter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.