FORMULA OFFERED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18087, 11 May 1922, Page 7

FORMULA OFFERED.

ANGLO - ITALIAN PLAN.

ARTICLE SEVEN DROPPED.

(Received 6.5 p.m.) A. *n<i N-Z. PAWS. May 9. The French President, M. Millcrand, has returned from his tour in North Africa. He attended a meeting of the Cabinet, which unanimously approved the ciccision to adhere to the Russian memorandum subject to modification 0 f Article 7. It decided not to compromise on the matter of the restitution of private property in Russia. The Petit Parisien states that the Italian and British delegates have arrived at a. formula to facilitate agreement with Russia. The proposal is to drop Article 7, regarding the restoration of private property for the present, allowing each country to negotiate separately with the Soviet" Government on the questiou. The British delegation also proposes that the non-aggression pact shall be signed for only five years, and shall make no reference to existing treaties, tn order not to involve neutral countries. It is also not regarded as essential that all countries should sign it. M. Poincare. Prime Minister of France, in a letter to Lord Hardinge, British Ambassador at Paris, clears up dissatisfaction in British circles in Genoa created by his former statement expressing French sympathy with Belgium and omitting sympathy with England. M. Poincare points out that every Frenchman -preserves the precious memory of the wartime co-oper-ation of the two countries. He adds: "We desire whole-heartedly permanence of cordial relations, but in a question of general interest and private property it is natural that between two allies with ■whom "we have equal sympathy, we cannot disavow those who think like us.