PARIS AGREEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 57, 6 February 1925, Page 5

PARIS AGREEMENT

PRESIDENT'S AUTHORITY. CRITICISM BY SENATE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received February 6. 10.35 a.m. WASHINGTON, Feb. 4. In connection with the Senate's discussion on the point raised by Senator Hiram Johnson regarding the Paris agreement, Senator Borah said: "From the Paris conference two important questions come that must some time be decided. The first is presented by the possibilities that may come from the action of Paris; the second is the power of the executive branches of the Government to determine without Congress's consent the disposal of the nation's debts. When the Secretary of State says that the United States is neither legally nor morally bound he probably expresses his present intention."

Senator Borah said he felt that someone in Congress ought to render what service he could for the avoidance of tho perils ahead. "We have traded amity and goodwill for perplexity, confusion, ill-will and hostility. That is what we got at Paris for two and aquarter per cent, of something that may never be paid."—A. and N.Z. cable.

Mr C. E. Hughes, Secretary of State, advised the Senate that the Paris agreement for the payment of American claims against Germany out of reparations was regarded as coming under the long-recognised authority of the President to arrange for the payment of claims in favour of the United States and its nationals. Later Senator Hiram Johnson, one of the irreconcilables, asked the Senate to consider "the grave and important questions which havo been presented by what happened at Paris."