TERMS OF FRENCH NOTE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 31, 6 August 1923, Page 7

TERMS OF FRENCH NOTE

DEFENCE OF THE OCCUPATION

GERMANY RUINED BY HER

OWN ACTIONS.

(OKITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) <AU3TRAUAN • NEW BEAIAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) PARIS, 4th August.

The text o£ the French reply to Britain says:—"The French Government still thinks the German proposals do not in the slightest degree show any desire on the part of Germany to submit to the execution of the Peace Treaty. We feel bound to recall the principle known to the British Government since the commencement of bur occupation, that France and Belgium can only evacuate the Ruhr pari passu with the payments effected by Germany. After four years' of waiting, of attempts of all sorts, of ultimata not followed by effects, of conferences proposed by the British Government, the conclusions of which have not been carried out, of successive moratoriums granted to Germany—the French and Belgian Governments arrived at the conclusion that only the procedure to which Germany resorted in 1871 should henceforth be applied. We shall only abandon the pledge we hold progressively and pari passii as we are paid. As for the passive resistance} if Germany completely ceased it we would modify our bccujiation compatible with the security of the troops and with the preservation of the pledge in our hands. We have too much confidence in the friendship of Britain to suppose it could ever think of demanding from us a contradiction of our public declarations on the point, which would cause' our humiliation and the exaltation of the spirit of revenge in , Germany. WHAT FRANCE HAS SOUGHT. "We know quite well that exploitation of the Ruhr will not produce alone the necessary sums for luparations. What we aimed at was to create in Germany the will to pay. It was to obtain what Lad not been obtained for four years—recognition by Germany of bur obligations, not theoretically, but practically. Germany's passive resistance is only the development in an acute form of her four years' resistance to the Treaty. We are convinced that if the British Government simply told the Reich it disapproves of the policy which is ruining Germany and threatens to ruin Europe, .everything would immediately return to order. Germany has followed the maddest financial policies, disdaining all principles of political economy consecrated by experience. Her present ruin is not the result of the occupation of ihe Ruhr It is the work of the Reich itself;' The passive resistance is, as the British Government recognises, the principal obstacle to the restoration of a normal situation. France and Belgium will not enter into conversations with Gel-many until resistance ceases. To go back upon such a declaration would shbw Germany that there was something to be iaiiied by opposing ihe -will of the Allies: "In regard to Germany's Capacity to pay, under the Treaty, the Iteparatirins Commission, having fixed the schedules of 1921, is called upon to study from time to time Germany's resources and capacity. It has complete power to extend the period or modify the methods of payment; thus, according to its constitution, the Commission has a constantly watchful eye upon Germany's financial and economic situation."