Last week, Oct. 5 was definitely set as the date on which representatives of Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia will meet with Foreign MinisterStresemann and Chancellor Luther of Germany, to discuss regional agreements (TIME, Sept. 21) intended to guarantee the Rhine and Eastern frontiers of the Reich. It was announced that Austen Chamberlain and M. Briand will represent Britain and France; but that the opening of the general council of the Facist party at Rome, also on Oct. 5, will prevent Signor Mussolini from being present.
The program of the conference is scheduled to be run off in two sections: the first to involve covenants guaranteeing the peace of the Rhineland, and the arbitration of all Franco-German differences (with the probable required entrance of Germany into the League); the second, to be concerned with treaties between Germany, Poland and Czecho-Slvakia, guaranteeing the Eastern frontier, and covering general arbitration agreements between the interested nations. From this latter phase of the matter Britain has declared she will hold aloof.
German Attitude. From the time that Foreign Minister Stresemann received the Allies’ invitation to the conference, (TIME, Sept. 21) the German nationalists have been staging a terrific anti-conference demonstration, for internal political effect. It has been clear from the first that Germany could not refuse the invitation of the Allies, and that it was to her advantage to accept. But nationalists continued to howl that Germany had been “insulted by being commanded* to appear” and that Minister Stresemann must not go. Finally President von Hindenburg asserted himself at a Cabinet session last week and squelched Dr. Schiele, Minister of the Interior, ardent obstructionist leader.
Seat of the Conference. Just north of the point where the Swiss frontier nips off a bit of Lago Maggiore, famed azure cradle of les Isles Borromees lies the little town of Lacarno, at what is said to be the lowest spot in Switzerland. To harassed negotiators, what could be a fairer haven? Locarno boasts but a single copper thread of telegraph wire to connect it with the outside world. Its atmosphere is not Swiss but Italian. Its climate has not the smart alpine tang of St. Moritz, but the balmy southern lambency of Italian Stresa, just across the lake.
*The “Allied Note” was verbally delivered by the French Ambassador at Berlin.