SPEECH BY POINCARE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 13, 16 July 1923, Page 7

SPEECH BY POINCARE

NATION BADLY TREATED

GERMANY'S BAD FAITH CON-

DEMNED.

(UNITES PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIOHI.)

- NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 16th' July, 11.30 a.m.)

PARIS, loth July

M. Poincare, unveiling a monument to M. Odent, the Mayor of Senlis, who Was shot by the Germans in 1914, referred to the serious propositions which were now the subject of Anglo-French negotiations. He declared that what Francs wanted to do was to make the Versailles Treaty .respected. Fiance had never ceased to make -concessions. Since the Armistice, she alone had borne great burdens. France had been badly treated. Although, she had a majority of interests at stake, she had a minority representation on tne Reparations Commission. Efforts , had been made to replace the Commission by an International Financial Committee. This was not in tile general interest of France. "We propose to relieve the German debt by the cancellation of the inter-Allied debt; but We considered it would be asking too much. Nevertheless, Germany has been so well cared for.in the past three years that she is atue to leave her obligations unfulfilled, and France has had to pay a. hundred milliards which Germany should have paid. Have we not tolerated the reconstruction of the German shipping, the development of canals and railways, and the enrichment of her industry? Equal firmness on the part of all the Allies would have made such bad faith impossible. Germany now has an organised resistance, and France has been forced to accentuate the pressure. Were France not in the Ruhr, her hands would have been empty, whereas how she holds pledges, and she d<ses not intend to let them go." , M. Poincare said he had always been a faithful partisan of' the ■ Anglo-French Alliance, and even before the war he had believed in a close union of-the two great nations of Western Europe. None would, therefore, regret more than himself if any shadow should darken the friendship to which he had contributed. He knew the Allies were as honest as themselves, and felt'assured that in the end they.- would agree that France was light. ■ ' .