Bronze plaque settles debt Napoleon left

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 11

Bronze plaque settles debt Napoleon left

NZPA-Reuter Bourg-Saint-Pierre Bourg-St-Pierre, a tiny Swiss alpine village had decided to end its 10-year quarrel with France over a Napoleonic debt by accepting a bronze plaque, the Mayor, Mr Fernand Dorsaz, said yesterday. The 200 inhabitants of the staging post on the Great St Bernard Pass have pressed the French Government to settle a. debt incurred by Napoleon when he passed through with his Army in 1800 on the way to Italy. Acting on a document signed by the French Emperor promising to make

good costs and damage, the village resubmitted a bill for 45,334 Swiss francs ($32,000) just before the French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, visited Switzerland in May of last year. “Debts must be repaid,” Mr Mitterrand told Swiss journalists, saying that he considered a symbolic gesture would suffice. In return for the plaque which Mr Mitterrand is donating, Mr Dorsaz said that Bourg-St-Pierre was ready to forget a bill covering 2037 uprooted trees, 80 unreturned pots and pans, 3150 logs for the transport of cannons, and local labour.

"We accept that the debt will' not be paid because of international conventions. The ceremony of May 19 will close the matter and we shall not press our claims any further,” he said. In its letter to the French Embassy a year ago the village ’ conceded that a “shot of humour” would not be amiss in settling the debt. French officials who entered the spirit of the affair suggested that Bourg-St-Pierre might have better luck pressing for unsettled debts totalling 148,063 Swiss francs ($103,000) left by the Austrian Army in 1814 and 1815.