FRANCE AND BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 130, 26 February 1929, Page 11

FRANCE AND BELGIUM

ALLEGED SECRET MILITARY CONVENTION

THE POSSIBLE ENEMIES

PROVISIONS FOR GENERAL MOBILISATION

(United Press Association.—By Electric Teleuraph.—Copyright.)

(Australian Press Assn — bulled Service.)

(Rec. February 25, 11.30 p,m.) Amsterdam, February 24.

Dutch newspapers, without comment, give prominence to what the “Utrechtsch Dagblad” claims to be the authentic provisions of a secret Franco-Belgian military convention, concluded in 1920, with interpretations placed ou the various articles by the Franco-Belgian General Staffs in 1927. The “Dagblad” asserts that the convention provides that if France is in a state of war with Germany or with any country to which Germany is allied, whether on the Rhine frontier or elsewhere, Belgium immediately places all her available troops at France’s disposal, France acting similarly if Belgium is in danger of war against Germany. The FrancoBelgian armies will also mobilise instantaneously and spontaneously immediately any Power assisted in any way by Germany mobilises. The Franco-Belgian armies will also mobilise against Germany immediately a Casus Foederis is established, as defined in existing treaties, the mobilisation entailing concentration.

Belgium underatkes to mobilise a minimum of 600,000 men, and France, supporting Belgium by a minimum of 1.200,000,000 men, both undertaking simultaneously a vigorous offensive, forcing Germany to fight both south of a common front.

The General Staffs will consult at least yearly regarding the convention, which lasts for twenty-five years. If it is then not renounced, it will continue for a similar period. Neither nation is able to conclude a separate peace. Interpretations the General Staffs have placed on the convention, it is alleged, declare that Belgium’s possible adversaries will be Germany and Holland, and France’s will be Germany and Italy, and, perhaps, Spain.

“SENSATIONAL, BUT NOT SURPRISING”

(Rec. February 25, 11.50 p.m.)

London, February 24.

The publication of the secret FrancoBelgian pact in Holland is regarded in German political circles as sensational, but not surprising, inasmuch as French policy since the war, in German eyes, has been one of unwarranted suspicion, not founded on nervousness. The revelation of the existence of the pact is regarded as a striking commentary ou the Locarno Pact.