BECLOUDED PROSPECTS.

Northern Advocate, 3 September 1919, Page 5

BECLOUDED PROSPECTS.

MUCH FRENCH OBJECTION

NEBULOUS REPARATION

(Received 8 a.m.) LONDON, September 1. The "Westminster Gazette's" Earis correspondent states: —"Although there is no doubt that the French Parliament will accept the Peace Treaty, there is opposition on all sides. This is considered as constituting a damaging blow on the methods and results of the Conference. There are already minor modifications of the Treaty, such as the treatment of prisoners, the policing of Upper Silesia, slower demobilisation of th c German army, and more vital changes.

"There is a prospect that critics will protest that France's territorial claims have not been met, but the nebulous terms 'of the reparation clauses, which shift authority to other bodies, leaving , nearly everything to th e future, afford the chief cause for uneasiness. The absence of an Allied pooling arangement is causing regret, and the shadowy provisions for the financial futur© are provoking alarm.

"Meanwhile the doctrinaire Socialists declare that the Treaty is reactionary, harsh and vindictive.—A. and N.Z.