INTERPRETATION CHALLENGED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 125, 9 March 1936, Page 5

INTERPRETATION CHALLENGED.

GERMAN VIEW OF SOVIET PACT. FRANCE MAY APPEAL TO LEAGUE. LONDON, March 8. Herr Hitler’s denunciation of the Locarno Treaty produced immediate repercussions in every capita i Europe. In Paris the Foreign Minister (M. Flandin) said in a statement t press that the Government had i» the Chamber of Deputies utterance to a desire for a Frajo-German rapprochement, m spite nnt renlving to overtures for a year. SoLuy in November, 1935, when the French Ambassador asked insistent y that Germany should negotiate a Franco-German air pact. M. Flandin then revealed that the French Ambassador had received, instructions on February 29 to seek urgent audience with Herr Hitler to obtain bases on which there might be possibility of rapprochement. “During an audience with Herr Hitler on March 2, at which Ba von Neurath was present, said M. Flandin, “a reply was given that the question was coming up .for the Ge man Government’s consideration so that definite proposals might oe made as soon as possible. German} asked, to facilitate negotiations, that the Ambassador’s visit should secret, to which we acceded. _ Baron ■von Neurath to-day received a memorandum in which Germany repudiated the Locarno Treaty and announced her intention of ac ing immediately. Nevertheless, the treaty expressly stipulates that it oug it 0 remain in force, until the Council of the League of Nations has given a contrary decision.”

M. Flandin added: “Germany’s interpretation of the Franco-Soviet pact is entirely inaccurate, especial y when she declares it to be incompatible with the Locarno Treaty. Germany has paid no attention to the justification, which France has been furnishing nearly all the year, and which has received the support of other signatoiies to the Locarno Treaty. “However much Germany felt aggrieved, its Government ought, if diplomatic channels appeared to be insufficient, to have submitted her grievances to the procedure of conciliation and arbitration prescribed by the Locarno Treaty.” ( M. Flandin said that the French Ambassador (M. Francois-Poncet), when he was given the _ German note, asked whether it constituted a reply to the French request for suggestions for a rapprochement. He was told that the document contained that reply. Accordingly, Franco-German reconciliation was to have as a basis & unilateral denunciation of a freely concluded treaty, the authors of which had set themselves the task of preparing such a reconciliation. Moreover, it was to he accompanied by the acceptance of a fait accompli. The French Government had carefully examined the German note and, without prejudice to other measures, had established contact with other signatories to the Locarno Treaty to secure common opposition to its repudiation.