GREAT BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 5

GREAT BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE

FRENCH REPLY TOO PRECIPITATE

CHANCELLOR STATES THE POSITION.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

.' .(AUSTRALIAN • NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 9th May, 11 a.m.)

LONDON, Bth May.

' The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, stated in the House of Commons that the Government regretted the unnecessary precipitancy of the Franco-Belgian reply to the German Note, and also the loss of the opportunity of again testifying to the solidarity of the Allies by a joint communication. Britain proposed to state her own views in a separate reply with-the least possible delay, and he believed that Italy would do the same.

It was the Government's view that the best and most natural procedure would be to return a concerted reply, the more so as the German Note was in response to. a suggestion made publicly and officially by the British Foreign Minister as to reparations, in which the Allied Powers, and not France and Belgium alone, were deeply concerned. Nor, in the opinion of the Government, need any insufferable difficulty have been experienced in drafting a collective reply, which would have reserved for separate treatment by the French and Belgian Governments, if desired, the question arising directly out of the recent occupation of German territory. The Governmeat had reason to believe that these views were shared by some of the Allies. The Chancellor said the Government was quite prepared to make proposals ,-to this effect, having already communicated its views to the Allied Governments when it was officially informed that France and Belgium had drafted a joint reply for themselves alone, the text of which was communicated on Saturday afternoon, with the intimation that it would be presented in twenty-four hours to the German Ambassador.

Lord Curzon will make a similar statement in the House of Lords.