London, Apr. 19.
When asked in the House of Commons today by Mr. Geoffrey Mander, Opposition Liberal member for East Wolverhampton, if, in connexion with the mutual aid arrangements with other countries, it was proposed that Obligations should be reciprocal and that the arrangements should be open to the adherence of all countries, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, replied: "As I informed Mr. C. R. Attlee, the Opposition leader, yesterday, His Majesty's Government is still in consultation with other interested Governments, and 1 am not yet in a position to add anything to my recent statements."
In a supplementary question, Mr. Mander suggested that, if it were made clear that the arrangements were open to all countries willing to give guarantees and accept obligations, that would go a long way to discount the German propaganda that these purely defence arrangements constituted an encirclement.
The Prime Minister was understood to have replied that he feared that those who had accepted propagandistic allegations of that kind, would not be convinced of their mistake by the theoretical consideration Mr. Mander had in mind.—Wireless through Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.