FRENCH POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19203, 20 June 1924, Page 6

FRENCH POLICY

M. HERR LOT'S INTENTIONS.

VISITS TO LONDON AND BRUSSELS

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

PARIS, June 18

M. Herriot is going to London on June 21 and to Brussels on Juno 23.—Reuter.

M. CAILLAUX PARDONED

PARIS, June 18,

The amnesty mentioned by M. Herriot applies to those convicted by the Senate sitting as <i High Court; therefore, it includes M. Caillaux.—Reuter.

A recent message from Paris stated: One of the new Government’s first acts will be to vote an amnesty to political offenders. It was expected that M. Caillaux would be included, hut it is understood that he lias refused to accept a pardon and has written to M. Herriot insisting upon a revision of his trial.

M. Caillaux, a noted French financier and Radical in the days before the war, was compelled to resign as a consequence of the shooting of a newspaper editor by Mme. Caillaux, his wife. The trial developed into a great political battle which revealed, amongst other things, France’s lack of preparedness in heavy artillery. M. Caillaux in those days was a vigorous opponent of the Entente with Britain and pro-German in his policy, arguing that the best way to prevent war was to cultivate the friendship of Germany. During the war he came under suspicion as a “defeatist,” and finally he was tried on a charge of treason, involving traffic with the enemy. After a lengthy hearing the main charge was dismissed, and he was convicted on a lesser account and banished from Paris with the loss of his political rights. M. Caillaux, who is very rich, protested throughout that his arrest and conviction was purely political, and that he had committed no offence against the State. He remained in France, and since tile war has carried on a vigorous campaign in the country against tho Nationalist bloc which M. Poincare led.