FRANCE REJECTS Hindi OFFER

Northern Advocate, 9 March 1936, Page 5

FRANCE REJECTS Hindi OFFER

REQUEST FOR LEAGUE COUNCIL MEETING

(Received 2.30 p.m.) PARIS, March 8.

Cabinet’s refusal to entertain Herr Hitler’s proposals for pacts of fceace with European countries is backed by a determination to demand economic and political sanctions against Germany.

The Government further ■ considers itself entitled to the immediate assis- . tance of Britain and Italy under the Rhineland Pact. . ... » o A conference of the. Locarno Powers will discuss the crucial point In; $ Paris tomorrow:'. The Government;has asked the League urgently to summon 1 the Council,- pointing out that, despite Baron von , Neurath’s announcement that Germany merely intended" symbolically to. send small detachments. ' into the demilitarised zone, important forces have appeared in several localities. • ■} . i| A Flat Denial* M. Sarraut, the Prime Minister, flatly declined to negotiate with Germany, basing his refusal on her two unilateral repudiations of solemn engagements as destroying confidence in her offer, also on her unannounced, entry into the Rhineland, thus' facing Europe with a fait accompli. “International could not longer exist,” declared M. Sarraut in the course of a broadcast, “if this method became general, France served European peace in opposing ft, The mere installation of German troops along the Rhine forbids negotiation. “We intend to insist on the maintenance .essentials guarantees, of French and Belgian security, which Locarno provides. Strasburg must not * fall under the menace of German guns. It is indispensable that the signatories of Locarno /must ex- , change on Germany’s dehunoiation of the treaty, A Strong Cause, l “Our cause is jilst as strong as Herr Hitler’s, , who makes thp FrancoRussian Pact the pretext fbr his action. ,f That is a poor excuse, because the pact is not yet ratified by the Senate His real object in acting now was to chooge a time when the French people might be divided by a general election. No Frenchman merits the insult that ’ - he will allow internal differences to cause France’s enslavement.”

Probably on the lines of a , similar, French Note, Belgium will direct the League Council’s attention to Germany’s violation of Locarno, says a Brussels message. Italian statesmen, says a Rome dispatch, are silent, but the Press insists that Germany would not have acted if . British insistence on sanctions had not distracted the attention of the remainder of Europe. A Geneva message gives the

official announcement that the Council will meet on Friday to

consider France’s protest.

The League of Nations Council has * been summoned provisionally -for Thursday to consider the French appeal against German repudiation of Locarno. League circles expected the denunciation, but are surprised at Herr’ Hitler’s offer to re-enter the League.