ACTS OF GRACE

Northern Advocate, 22 May 1929, Page 5

ACTS OF GRACE

REPARATIONS ADJUSTMENT

AMERICA FOLLOWS SUIT, PART OF OCCUPATION COST. (Times Cable.) (Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, May 21. The Paris correspondent of t,he “Times” states that Mr Hugh Wilson, . 'American observer, attended a meeting of creditor groups of .the Committee of Experts and announced the American Government’s decision to abandon part of its claim to arrears for the cost of Rhineland occupation.

The value of this concession, estimated at £400,000 yearly, impressed the committee members and heartencd them to attempt to reach a unanimous agreement. MARTYRDOM CLAIMS. VICTIMS OP AGGRESSION. REFLECTIONS AT DOUAMONT.

(Times Cable.) (Received 9 a.m.) PARIS, May 20.

In view of the dangers arising from rebuilding on one of the sites where' masses of shells and explosives might lie buried, the reconstruction of Dounmont. has been prohibited, M. Poincare, in unveiling a monument to the razed village, said the dispossessed inhabitants had the right to demand that their fate should be remembered when the larger question of reparations was being discussed. An equitable settlement of the reparations should not leave France to bear one penny of the expenditure forced upon her by German aggression, whether to restore devastation in the provinces or to pay pensions to victims, but France had abandoned hope of such a favourable settlement. Inspired by a desire for .reconciliation, France had agreed to fresh investigations and had done all possible to facilitate the work of the experts, merely insisting that the Dawes plan should not be surrendered in exchange for a more precarious and unproductive system. An economic revival should be reached by definite settlement, but it would be an just and intolerable that this should be done at the expense of martyred and (ravaged France.