NEGOTIATING

Evening Star, Issue 21138, 25 June 1932, Page 12

NEGOTIATING

POSITION AT LAUSANNE FRANCO-GERMAN CONVERSATIONS (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, June 24. (Received June 25, at 11.30 a.m.) The conversations at Lausanne between M. Herriot and Herr Yon Papen, for which the ground had been prepared by Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s negotiations yesterday with M. Herriot, began, as arranged, this morning. The two statesmen were alone during the early part of the interview, and later the conversations were continued with their Ministerial colleagues and exports in attendance. A communique stated that, after the German Finance Minister (Herr Krosick) had presented the details of a statement of the economic and financial position of Germany, the meeting adjourned. The conversations will be resumed this evening. ARMS LINKED FRENCH AND GERMAN PRIME MINISTERS. LONDON, June 24. (Received June 25, at 9 a.m.) A Lausanne communique.records the opening of the Franco-German consultations, at which Germany’s financial and economic position was detailed. M. Herriot and Herr Von Papen emerged with their arms linked. They stated that things were going very well. TENSE ATMOSPHERE SECURITY OF EUROPE GERMAN ATTITUDE WAITED. LAUSANNE, June 15. The tense atmosphere at Lausanne, even before the opening of the War Debts and Reparations Conference, indicates appreciation of the slenderness of the thread on which the security of Europe hangs. Three Prime Ministers, 1,000 delegates and officials, and 500 journalists are already here. The thoroughness of precautions to prevent untoward scenes when the leaders arrive was a tribute to Swiss organisation. Armed soldiers guarded station entrances, militia and police kept thoroughfares clear, hotels were closely inspected, visitors underwent careful scrutiny, and journalists’ credentials were examined with_ more than usual care prior to admission to conference headquarters. These include the large Chateau Ouchy Hotel, the Beau Rivage Hotel, where the plenary sessions will be held in its spacious ballroom, and the Palace Hotel, to which the funicular railway ascends. The British and Dominions’ delegates occupy the Beau Rivage, and -overflow into another establishment. The French Prime Minister, M. Herriot, is more amenable to argument than his predecessor, M. Tardieu. M. Boncour and other French delegates go even further to the Left, but the insecurity of M. Herriot’s political position, combined with the disinclination of public opinion to allow France to go too far, may commit him to nugatory utterances. Obviusly much depends on whether the German Chancellor says Germany cannot or will not pay. The latter attitude has its perils.