FRENCH DEBTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20448, 30 June 1928, Page 13

FRENCH DEBTS

PAYMENTS TO BRITAIN. AGREEMENT NOT YET RATIFIED. (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, Juno 28. Questioned in the House of Commons to-day as to the non-ratification by the French Government of its debt agreement with Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said he had no intention of making representations on this matter to M. Poincare, as such a course he would consider unsuitable. Explaining the position, he said: “ When we signed the debt agreement and accepted a large abatement of our claim, it was on the definite understanding that the French Government should make itself responsible for securing ratification of the agreement as soon as possible. When M. Poincare formed his Government it was assumed that he accepted this understanding. Nothing that his since passed justifies the suggestion that the intentions of the French Government have been in any way altered. In the meantime the payments due under the agreement for the financial years 19261927 have been duly met, and the French Government has undertaken to pay the £8,000,000 due in the current financial year—half on September 15 next, and half on March 15 next.