FRANCE'S WAR DEBTS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19666, 9 July 1929, Page 11

FRANCE'S WAR DEBTS.

* CHAMBER OPPOSES RATIFICATION. NEW POLITICAL CRISIS. (ITTTun rasas association —a* m! erase TELEGRAPH —COPYBIOHT.) DON DON, July 7. A French political crisis has followed the Chamber's reluctance to ratify unconditionally the debt agreements with Great Britain and the United States. The Paris correspondent of tne "Daily News'' says that the formation of another Cabinet with a new Prime Minister seems to be the most likely exit from the deadlock. The moet alarming feature in the present crisis is the big effort that is being made to mobilise the general public against Franco's debt settlement. Royalist agitators especially are active and have distributed throughout the country thousands of leaflets denouncing "policy of abandonment" as regards both war debts and the Rhine occupation. Warnings that a refusal to ratify the debt agreements would be tantamount to a declaration of national bankruptcy, probablv leading to reprisals by the United States, are completely unheeded by the hot-heads. Un'ted Service.

[The Finance Committee of the Chamber decided in favour of ratificatio of the debt agreements with reservations. An early cable message stated that the Senate would debate on the ratification on July 9th. Shortly after the war the United States offered to sell France all American war material then in Europe for £80,000,000. France concluded what proved to be a bad bargain for France. America last month agreed to absorb £80,000,000 into the Franco-American debt funding —the Mellon-Berenger Agreement—provided France ratified the Agreement by August Ist. France faces another complication, as under the London agreement debt payments to Britain must not be inferior to those to America, and therefore she would have to pay Britai- " 50,000,000 also.]