TREATY BREACH?

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 7

TREATY BREACH?

STRONG OBJECTION.

Austro-German Customs Union

Surprises France.

DIPLOMATIC PROTEST.

(United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright)

(Received 11.30 a.m.)'

LONDON, March 23.

The announcement that Germany and Austria have arranged a Customs union lias caused surprise in Paris. There has been no official comment in the absence of exact information, but some French newspapers declare that the arrangement is simply a tariff union and infringes the Treaty of St. Germain and similar Austrian agreements.

A message from BerlJ* states that the Nationalists hail the Austro-German Customs union as the first step to a complete union, but Government circles emphasise that it is non-political in character and claim that it does not involve the violation of the Peace Treaty or protocol. It is estimated that the union • will extend Germany's internal market by 10 per cent, and will thus be a tonic, to industry.

A dispatch from. Vienna states that France, Italy and Czecho-Slovakia have through diplomatic channels protested against the Austro-German union on the ground that it infringes the Geneva Protocol of October 4, 1922. The Paris newspapers almost unanimously express alarm and resentment at the negotiations, and condemn them at a time when the stability and peace of Europe hang in the balance, "L'Oeuvre" asks why Britain does not join in the protests and hopes that Mr. A. Henderson, Foreign Secretary, will join M. Briand in notifying Austria of his astonishment at the way it proposes to break international agreements.