THE FRENCH ELECTIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 5

THE FRENCH ELECTIONS

PROFOUND EFFECT IN EUROPE.

THE RUHR AND REPARATIONS.

HOPEFUL AMERICAN VIEW.

(By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyrlgbt.)

(Received 12 noon.)

LONDON, May 14.

The Washington correspondent of the "Times" said the opinion there is that the result of the French elections will have a more important bearing on the I rehabilitation of Europe than any! development in recent months. It is I considered that while home issues de-! feated M. Poincare, there will yet be room for sufficient modification of the Ruhr policy to permit an Anglo-French entente, without which nothing is possible. It was feared that the growth of Nationalist sentiment in Germany, and the gains it had made at the elections, would have produced a corresponding effect in France. Now this danger seems to be removed, and the interest turns on the effect on the German policy of development, which in the American view means substituting moderation and sanity for competition and sabotage. The key to the situation, however, is still recognised to ibe putting into operation the experts' plan. If this cannot be done without American help, then equally it cannot be done without determination on the part of France and Germany to give the plan an honest trial. Under Poincare it was feared there would be obstacles. The tendency now is towards greater optimism than has been felt for many months, and correspondingly a greater belief that next year there may be international conferences out of which European reconstruction may ultimately come.— ("Times.")