CRISIS OF THE RHINE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 38, 14 August 1923, Page 7

CRISIS OF THE RHINE

BRITAIN'S DEBT POLICY

PARIS PRESS IN CONDEMNATION

(UNITED PBBSS ASSOCIATION.—COPYBIOHT.) {AUSTRALIAN • NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 14th August, 11; a.m.)

PARIS, 13th August.

The "Matin" says: "If the German capacity to pay amounts to only fourteen milliard gold marks, England will take it all. If it is twenty milliards, England will have fourteen milliards, and will generously leave six milliards to be divided between the victims of the war.'- The Note shows to an unexpected dogree.the moral weakness which is coming over, the British leaders, which is only compax-able to the physical weakness into which Germany has fallen."

The "Echo de Paris" declares that the Note is a supreme" appeal to France to adopt the British viewpoint; but its uselessness is well known. "Having lost all hope of getting any money from the Reich, it is /from us that England is asking for money. We are all wondering whether we are dreaming. This is just the kind of thing Lord Curzon should have used for Germany."

The "Petit Parisien" says: "We must wait for farther conversations to be able to judge the true spirit of the British Government."

The "Journal" asks: "How could the British leaders allow themselves to be drawn into testing the legality of the Ruhr occupation? We understand plainly the object of the manoeuvre. It is a question of preparing for one of. those legal. arbitrations, to force France, in case' of refusal, to find "something saleable. . France will not fall into the trap." ... , .

The "Oeuvre" says: "England has written an unacceptble programme. It is for 'France to oppose, another programme to theirs."

PARIS, 12th August. The newspaper "Liberta" says:— "The British Foreign Office perfectly well knows that the suggestion regarding the legality of the occupation of the Eiuhr could not be admitted for an instant by France. The questions concerning the treaties of 1919 depend solely upon the Allies, who won the war, and in no way upon the League of Nations, of which The Hague Tribunal is an annex." . . ''-.'■ '■■ "I.'Oeuvre" asks: "What is the good of arguing whether the Ruhr occupation is provided for under a certain paragraph of the treaty, good or bad? The French • and Belgian Governments, will not evacuate the Ruhr over a legal quibble."' .