DANUBIAN CONFERENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 April 1932, Page 7

DANUBIAN CONFERENCE

GERMANY’S TRADE-FEARS.

[BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

LONDON, April 8.

Retarding the Danube States question, it is now clear that the Four Powers Conference is ending, because the French, Italian, and German viewpoints are irreconcilable- Count Von Bulow (Germany) declared that Czecho-Slovakia had no need of financial assistance, but Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria needed it urgently. Rumania and Jugo-Slavia needed it decidedly less. Mutual preferences among the Danubian States, he said, had been tried, but had failed. Germany’s exclusion from any preferential system decided on would result in Czecho-Slovakia crushing German industry. France and Britain might be willing to waive the most-favoured-nation clause, since they did little business with The Danube States. Britain only exported there ten million sterling’s worth per annum, while Germany exported sixty millions’ sterling worth. LATER— Herr Bulow said that Germany was prepared to grant unilateral preference to Hungary, Jugo-Slavia, Ronmania and Bulgaria in respect to their agricultural exports and offered Austria unilateral preference both for agricultural and industrial exports. Germany invited other Powers to follow the example. When Herr Bulow concluded, by observing that the French and German proposals were mutually destructive, the conference realised that a solution at present was impracticable. The “Daily Express” says that the conference crashed over the refusal of Germany and Italy to sacrifice trading rights without compensation. In the background was German suspicion that the French proposals were intended to block the possibility of a 'revival of the plan for an AustroGerman customs union. The French correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” declares that French quarters regard Germany’s objections as really political. She fears the closing of the Danube countries against Germanic influence and economic penetration. Mr. MacDonald closed the proceedings, and intimated the failure of the scheme of a preferential tariff meant the loss of financial assistance to the States.