INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3014, 20 December 1911, Page 30

INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

FRANCO-GERMAN RELATIONS. LONDON, December 12. Speaking at the Authors' Club, Colonel Natusch Maude said that during the recent crisis M. Langlois, the French generalissimo, came to London privately, and afterwards informed the French General Staff that England would be able to fulfil her. promise to send six divisions across the Channel. This fact- alone had preserved the peace in July. Information from other sources indicates that the British troop© were intended to defend the Belgian frontier. PARIS, December 15. In the Chamber of Deputies M. Demun opened a Franco-German debate in a crowded Chamber. He made a telling speech, the effect of which was that previously in history France had lost colonies, but always with weapons in hand. It was now different. —(Much interruption, laughter, and ironical cheers.) He said that Germany resolutely refused to overtake a conference regarding Algeciras with the Powers, and stated that if called on she would insist on the re-establishment of the status quo created by the Algeciras Agreement. After France had refused to cede any of Morocco Germany asked for the whole of Gaboon and the Congo between the ocean and the Sanga River, France receiving Togoland and a strip of the Cameroons. The tension was created when France refused. Germany then suggested that she be given access to the Congo River, and she afterwards proposed to divide Morocco into two zones, in one of which Germany was to have the advantage. The outline of ultimate agreement only emerged in October. Spain was" now asked to pay equitable price for the benefits conferred by the Franco-German agreement.

M. Demun's interpolation was negatived by 448 votes to 88. BERLIN, December. 16. Although the newspapers are disposed to let bygones be bygones and disouss possible improvements in foreign relations, many- protest against the Government's concealment of facts. The Vossische Zeitung states that it is extremely painful to learn from the French Minister what the German Government ought to reveal—notably, respecting the proposed priviledged zone in Morocco and France's rejection of the demand for Congo from the sea to Sanga. The Times' Berlin correspondent censures the persistence of manipulation of German opinion against France,, and still more against Britain by official dissemination of a version of events now proved to be absolutely untrue. He adds that as far as is known the system of press inspiration will continue in future as hitherto.