AMERICAN CONDITIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11662, 29 October 1923, Page 8

AMERICAN CONDITIONS

FULL ATTENDANCE ESSENTIAL By Telegraph.—Press Assn—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association WASHINGTON, October 26. Although the American Government -stands ready to enter a European Reparations Conference which has a full attendance of the Allied Powers, it is unwilling to agree betorehand to a meeting at which there might be empty chairs. Eor the moment, officials are content not to elaborate *on Mr Hughes’s pronouncement, or to predict what effect it may have on the British effort to obtain some semblance of a world-wide effort to 6olve the ills of the European Continent. There are indications that, with the subject reopened, important developments might follow With Britain friendly to the principle of a conference, _ attention turns to France, whose objection has hitherto made full participation by all the Allies in such a consultation impossible. What measure of confidence in French eo-operation may 'have actuated tho Curzon dispatch and message of inquiry to Washington is unknown here. Officials are inclined to await an official expression from Paris before venturing an opinion as to whether Lord Curzon’s venture has succeeded or failed. If France adheres to the position she has held, it is admitted l here that a contributing factor to such a decision may be the insistence of Mr Hughes on the international debt question as separate and distinct from that of reparations. From, the outset there has been no indication that the United States Government has any intention of cancelling tho debts owed to it as the result of the war by France or any other nation. Mr Hughes replied in the negative to Lord Curzon’s question as to the possibility of American representation on the Reparations Commission. This is held to be the natural and inescapable result of the policy of the United States ever since it refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Officials are pleased by the official notice taken of Mr Hughes’s suggestion, and that the British officials have at least seen in it the possibility of a final solution. The position of the State Department is that Mr Hughes’s reply to Lord Curzon should be left to speak for itself, as a re-definition of the American policy. RESTRICTIONS BY FRANCE WELCOMED AS EXPERTS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. PARIS, October 27. It is authoritatively stated that Franco has notified the United States tha she will welcome the presence ol an American representative on the Committee of Experts to investigate Germany’s capacity to pay, but such committee must be appointed by the Reparations Commission and ho sub ordinate thereto.