UNDERSTANDING FRANCE AND BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 114, 16 May 1934, Page 9

UNDERSTANDING

FRANCE AND BRITAIN

M. CAILLATJX'S PLEA

POLICY OF DISARMAMENT

PRICE OF CONCESSIONS

United Press Association—By Electric Tele

erapli—Copyright. (Received May 16, 11 a.m.)

LONDON, May 15,

The "News-Chronicle's" Paris correspondent says that on the eve of the reassembly of Parliament the exMinrster, M. Joseph Caillaux has contributed a remarkable article to the "Depeche de Toulouse," the leading Radical Socialist newspaper. He urges MM. Doumergue and Barthou to come to a disarmament understanding with Britain, even at the price of concessions.

"Even if we do not share Britain's faith in the efficacy or even in the possibility of international supervision of armaments, we ought nevertheless to adhere to the policy of conciliation to which Britain invites us."

The article represents the views of a large body of moderate French opinion.

M. Caillaux, born in 1863, was Minister of Finance in the WaldeckRousseau Cabinet 1899 to 1904, Clemenceau Cabinet 1906-09; and Monis Cabinet, 1911. He was responsible for negotiations following the Coup d'Agader, and a treaty with Germany giving France full rights in Morocco in exchange for territorial modifications in Germany's favour in Equatorial Africa.

He was Minister of Finance in the Doumergue Cabinet in 1913, but resigned after* the assassination by his wife of Gaston Calmette, editor of the "Figaro." During the war he expressed views in favour of peace and was arrested and tried in 1920 before the Senate. He was condemned for imprudent conversations to be deprived of political rights for five years and of the right to enter Paris. He was amnestied in 1924 ana became Senator and Minister of Finance in the Painlevo Cabinet, 1924, and VicePresident in the Briand Cabinet, 1926".