PEACE TREATY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 300, 13 September 1921, Page 5

PEACE TREATY

POINCARE’S DISTRUST OF GERMANY OCCUPATION OF RHINE PROVINCES SECRET NEGOTIATIONS REVEALED M. Poincare, the former President of France, distrusts Germany, and suggests that new guarantees in regard to the fulfilment of the Peace Treaty should be demanded. By Telegraph—Press Aseoclatlon —Couyflght. (Rec. September 12, 8 p.m.) x, Paris, September 12. Ex-President Poincare, whose many articles in th© newspapers show the deepest distrust of Germany, and insist on tho security of France, demands the strictest application of the penalties provided for in the Peace Treaty for any default by Germany. il. Poincare contributes to "Le Temps” a lengthy article revealing secret negotiations at the Peace Conference between M. Clemenceau, Mr. Lloyd George, and President Wilson regarding the military occupation of the Rhine provinces. M. Poincare, as President, with the aid of M. Clemenceau and Marshal Focb, used his utmost influence to secure the insertion in the Peace Treaty of a clause en“abling the Allies to occupy the Rhino, provinces until Germany had carried out all the Treaty’s conditions, including fuil payment of the reparations, which would tak© a minimum of thirty years. Mr. Lloyd George and President. Wilson refused to extend the period for the occupation of the Rhine beyond fifteen years,''preferring a still shorter period. M. Clemenceau reluctantly agreed to fifteen years, after Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson had signed an agreement by which Britain and America undertook to send France military aid if she were attacked without provocation by Germany. This agreement, which dependent on ratification by the British and American Parliaments, becLrne a dead Letter by the American Senate’s refusal to ratify the Treaty. M. Poincare’s article in the "Temps’* suggests that France should now demand new guarantees in regard to Germany’s fulfilment of the Treaty, as the terms under which France agreed that the occupation of the Rhine should bo reduced to fifteen years have been broken.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.