PACT WITH SOVIET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 13

PACT WITH SOVIET

FRENCH CHAMBER ACTS RATIFICATION CARRIED DISORDERLY SITTING By Telegraph—Fress Association,— Copyright PARIS. Feb. 27 Although the Government had not made the ratification of the FrancoSoviet pact a question of confidence, the deputies ratified it to-day by 353 votes to 164 after a debate which had lasted three weeks. The final stages were conducted amid tumultuous proceedings which had to be twice suspended. Officials of the Chamber had to push back Left Wing deputies who began to cross the floor, provoked by the heckling of the Right Wing of the Socialists. The former Air Minister. M. Cot, who visited Russia in 1934, in defending the pact, claimed that the Soviet's Air Force was the strongest in the world, with 3000 modern first-line machines. Also it had an unprecedented achievement in its recent manoeuvres, when 97 aeroplanes transported four battalions of infantry, with four tanks, four armoured cars, 16 cannon and four liaison cars. The Right Wing member M. Henriot contended that the pact would not be effective because Poland would not allow the Soviet Army to cross her territory toward Germany. The measure now goes to the Senate.