WORKING WITH FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20438, 14 December 1929, Page 13

WORKING WITH FRANCE.

VALUE OF THE ENTENTE,

BUILDING UP THE LEAGUE.

British "Wireless

RUGBY, Dec. 12

Proposing the toast of France at the dinner of the United Association of France, Mr. Arthur Henderson, Foreign Secretary, referred to the relations between Britain and France. He related how misunderstanding began first to be cleare'd away by the entente cordiale. This change had been greatly assisted by the institution of the League of Nations. All through the early years of the League .it was the French and British nations which worked together to build it up. Differences of opinion made no difference to their fundamental co-opera-tion.

Speaking of the forthcoming Five Powers Naval Conference, Mr. Henderson recalled the following words used by Mr. Mac Donald when he was Prime Minister in 1924 in a letter to M. Poincare, the French Premier at the time:—

" The condition of Europe can, I feel convinced, be -remedied only by joint action between France and England, undertaken with full sympathy for their respective requirements and with a wise regard for the interests of the world at large."- , It was for such co-operation as Britain had with France in 1924 that he was now prepared. The -understanding which Mr. Mac Donald happily reached with the President of the United States, Mr. Hoover, did not mean that Britain would go to the conference with any rigid or cut and dried proposals.