FRENCH CABINET’S DILEMMA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 272, 30 August 1935, Page 5

FRENCH CABINET’S DILEMMA.

RELATION TO THE LEAGUE. ITALIAN AND BRITISH IDEAS. LONDON, August 29. The Paris correspondent of “The Times’’ says the Government is clearly adopting a wait and see policy in the hope that opportunity of securing peace will occur either before or during the meeting of the League Council, but whether M. Laval can solve the dilemma which awaits him. there is known only to himself. M. Laval has no illusions about the firmness oi the British detei mination to stand by the League, and the consequences of failure to uphold the British initiative are not likely to have escaped notice. All the advantages of what could then only he a gesture would lie with Britain, and all the onus for betrayal with France, who would be saddled, in addition, with the long-standing reproach that behind her rnuch-vaunted attachment to the League lay no more than the desire

to use it as a combination, against Germany. "" - - - More important still, there would certainly be a revulsion of British public opinion against any failure to support the common ideal,: and aji equally certain determination,: to have, the fewest possible future r_- dealings with Europe. -- ~ Faced as a last resort with’, the inevitable choice between British and Italian ideas, no French Government is likely to hesitate long. M. Laval’s present concern is to avoid, almost at any cost, that choice.-* • -