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GERMAN TREATY.
CONSULTING SMALLER
ALLIES.
LONDON TALKS.
HITCH ON PROCEDURE.
LONDON, Jan. 22.-The Big
Four Foreign Ministers' deputies
failed, yesterday, to decide on the
procedure for hearing the smaller
Allies on the German treaty, says
Reuters diplomatic correspondent.
It is now expected that Australia
will be heard alone tomorrow.
The British, French and United
States delegates, while making no
concrete proposals, suggested that the
smaller Allies should be consulted, if
possible, at all stages of the pre
paration of the German treaty, but
Mr. Gusev (Russia), while agreeing
that consultation with the other
Allies was of great importance,
emphasised that it was the Big Four
Foreign Ministers who were prepar
ing the draft.
During the discussions the United
States delegate (Mr. Murphy) sug
gested that because the preparation
of the treaty would be a long process
an interim "international statute"
should be devised to operate until
the final treaty was concluded. Such
a statute might be imposed or sub
mitted to a referendum of the Ger
man people, or accepted by Ger
man party leaders or by a provisional
government. Mr. Murpbhy pointed
out that the conclusion of the final
treaty would, imply a contract with
a central German Government.
Sir William Strang (Britain) said
that some interim arrangement
might well be necessary, though one
part of such an arrangement
might well be found in the existing
provisions for Allied control.
Mr. Gd~ev was critical of the sug
gestion and sought further clarifica
tion.
The discussion ended without for
mal proposals or decisions,.
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