NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRENCH

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 7

NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRENCH

BRITISH AND U.S. ZONE TALKS ON COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON { May 7. The correspondent of “The Times’’ in Paris says that preliminary negotiations for a commercial agreement between the French authorities and the combined British and American economic tone of Germany are described as giving cause for satisfaction. It is too early to indicate the probable lines the agreement wfll take, but it may be said that the French now view the establishment of a degree of centralisation in Germany much less unfavourably than before. Even if only by force of circumstances the French Foreign Office is moVing towards a new and modified formulation of its German policy and ih this the failure to obtain Russian support for the economic integration of the Saar with France is said to have

It is also realised that the British and American Governments must soon take measures to complete the unification of their zones and thus avert further political confusion and economic distress and it might then be difficult for France tb maintain the isolation of its zone. Fusion of the three zohes, however, would in no way lessen the determination of the French to satisfy their demands for economic integration of the Saar with France and international control of the. Ruhr