The most striking feature of today's Council meeting is the fact that Sr. Juan Negrin Premier of the Valencia Government, will pronounce ihe opening speech as Acting President. Doubtless, he will take the opportunity to press for League intervention on behalf of his government.
The news that Germany and Italy will not be represented in the discussions at Nyon was received with regret in London, where it was felt that their presence would have greatly facilitated the practical work. Nevertheless,- it is believed that Britain's modified plan should prove adequate to make conditions very unpleasant for attacking submarine:
In the British view, the subject before the conference is of the greatest urgency but of limited scope, and it may be assumed that any tendency to deviate from the immediate and concrete goal into political or "ideological" side play will be resisted Italo-German View Untenable It is understood that Britain will not consider the proposal, contained in the German and Italian replies, for referring the piracy question to the Non-Intervention Committee, as conditions in the Mediterranean present a wider problem than non-intervention in Spain.
The question of safety of shipping of all nations far beyond the territorial waters of Spain goes outside the scope of the Committee, even if the gravity and urgency of the circumstances in which the question has arisen did not demand a more authoritative and direct mode of negotiation.
A similar necessity was recognized, in the case of the patrol powers, in the agreement reached after the Deutschland incident regarding procedure for dealing with serious incidents of concern to those four powers, and this procedure was in fact invoked in the Leipzig incident.
Apart from these considerations. proceedings of the Non-Intervention Committee have not always been free from an atmosphere of recrimination, which would be most inappropriate to a case where quick action is required on principles of law and humanity, Both the German and Italian Governments, in notifying the French and United Kingdom Governments that they cannot accept the invitation to the Nyon Conference, suggest reference of the questions to be dis-Cussed to the London Non-Interven. tion Committee.
The German Government welcomes the attempt to put an end to insecure in the Mediterranean, and the italian Note states it was favourably considering acceptance of the in ition before receipt of the Russian Note of September 6.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.