FRANCE ON ALERT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 11

FRANCE ON ALERT

SECURITY PROBLEM

DISARMAMENT AND DEBT

WHAT WILL U.S. DO »

Onltsd Erws Association— Bj Electrlo Telegraph—Copyrlsbt. LONDON, May 10. The United States observer in Europe, Mr. Norman Davis, is due at Geneva this week. He is expected to produce definite proposals by the United States regarding security. Should these prove acceptable to France, ana should there be any change in the attitude of Germany the Disarmament Conference may yet function, with beneficial repercussions on the debts question and the World Conference. The French Cabinet, with ono eye on Washington and the other on Berlin, meets daily, but marks tinio. It is rumoured that the United States has made a debt offer to France in which her interest will bo cancelled and the j debt reduced to capital alone, 30 per cent, to be paid immediately in gold and silver, and the balance in annuities spread oveT fifty years, or it might be commercialised in the form of an international loan. The Paris correspondent of the ♦'Daily Mail" states that America has tentatively offered to fund the French war debt at £300,000,000, instead of £800,000,000 arranged for in the MellonBerenger agreement of 1926. Seventytwo millions of gold and twelve millions of silver would be payable immediately and. the remainder in instalments to the Bank of International Settlements. The proposal, it is stated, is certain to be rejected, as it is emphasised that the maximum amount recoverable from Germany under the Lausanne agreement is £108,000,000, which France is willing to pay America when received, but not one pdund more than is received. ! Though M. Herriot is urging tho payment of the December instalment, Cabinet will refuse until a moratorium for the June payment ia assured. It will also decline any payment in gold.