FRANCE APPROVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 151, 29 June 1931, Page 7

FRANCE APPROVES

WAR DEBT PROPOSAL. All Night Sitting of Deputies Brings Majority. EXHAUSTIVE DEBATE. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) PARIS, June 28. After a long and exhaustive debate the Chamber of Deputies at 6.45 a.m. yesterday by 386 votes to 189 adopted M. Fougere's motion approving the Government's reply to Mr. Hoover's Avar debt proposal. The motion added that the Chamber relied on the Government to maintain intact the unconditional contract signed in The Hague agreement. All night lono- speaker after speaker expressed his vieAv. At one time it seemed likely that all the Left groups Avould vote against ratification, in which' event the Government might have been narrowly defeated. At. 4 a.m. the deputies Avere almost worn out by the length of the- debate. There was excitement for a brief inter-A-al when M. Herriot vigorously voiced the views of the Radical Socialists, saying his party would not support any motion Avhich did not assure respect for contracts. Just before the vote was taken M. Tilum announced that the Socialist party would vote Avith the Government. The Prime Minister, M. Laval, expressed eatisfaction Avith the result of the war debt conversations. M. Dubois, formerly president of the Reparation Commission, urged that France should insist on guarantees. He suggested that the United States had intervened in European affairs to suit her .own convenience. He depicted Germany as aiming at the destruction of the Versailles Treaty, and referred to the Pan-German menace. The French Ambassadors, whom events "had caught napping, should be changed. M. Briand retorted: "Do not expect me to be coAvardly enough to sacrifice my officials." The Minister of Finance, M. Flandin, said it Avas never intended to upset the Young Plan, under Avhich Germany had sought a moratorium a feAV days before Mr. Hoover made his proposal, which Avould be more economical to France. IN NEGOTIATION. FRENCH AND AMERICANS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, June 28. Negotiations on the French reply commenced yesterday afternoon between Mr. A. "Mellon, Secretary to the United States Treasury, and Mr. W. E. Edge, American Ambassador, and MM. Briand, Foreign Secretary, and F f landin, Finance Minister.