BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17460, 22 May 1922, Page 7

BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

MR ASQUITH ON THEIR RELATIONS. GERMAN REPARATIONS PROBLEM 'By Cab'.e—Press Association —Copyright.) (Australian and X.Z. Cable A»aoci»tion.,' (Received May 21st. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 20. Mr Asquith, addressing the National Liberal Federation Conference at Blackpool, said nothing was more vital to the future of Europs than cordial friendship between Great Britain and France. ' "Such a friendship need not and does not involve identification of policy or method upon every international problem. For instance, our French friends must be told quite frankly that we will not countenance the association of Britain with any coercive measures to extort impossible payments from Germany. The restoration of our relations with France depends on the immediate readjustment of tho questions of reparations and indemnities." If asked what he would do if in power, he would reply: "Scale dovra the aggregate of Germany's indebtedness so as to confine it to material damage actually caused by the war." He would tliec endeavour to arrive through the League of Nations at the method and terms of payments Germany could carry out without disaster and ruin to her trade with the rest of the world, and such terms as would enable her to obtain an international loan. He would abandon, in favour of France and Belgium, our claims to German reparations, and also cancel their indebtedness to Britain. He predicted that the foregoing policy would be Britain's policy. People talked lightly or incomprehensibly of a rupture of our relations with Franco. "What is the alternative? Are wo going back to the isolation of the latter part of the nineteenth century, or a system of groups under the name of the balance of power P If so, for what was tho war fought?" ■

METHODS OF DIPLOMACY. SPEECH BY MR CHAMBERLAIN^ LONDON, May 19. M. Paul Cambon and the Comte de St. Aulaire, the past and present French Ambasadors to London, were entertained at luncheon in the House of Commons.

Mr Austen Chamberlain, in toasting the guests, said they were assembled to re-affirm the friendship between the two countries, which had made common sacrifices that had left stfars-on all-hearts, and would be remembered for generations. We must have, our differences of opinion, as our interests differed. Let anyone having influence in either country resolve to seek to see through the surface difficulties to their profound underlying unity. Let us use our influence to remove misunderstandings; and determine to find a friendly solution of all differences. "I am not sure that M. Cambon and I do not belong to 'a generation that is passing away. I have a suspicion that M. Cambon still likes the old diplomacy with its reticence and silence, and careful avoidance of the limelight of the Presß. So do I. I wish it were given to us still to live in a world where those 'quiet ways satisfied | the needs of the times. Whatever place there may be in the future for now methods there will always be room for the older diplomacy."