BRITAIN AND FRANCE

Southland Times, Issue 19123, 15 December 1923, Page 5

BRITAIN AND FRANCE

REPORT DENIED. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, December 12. The Times is authorised to emphatically deny a report emanating from Berlin alleging that shortly before the election France and Britain concluded an agreement by which, inter alia, Britain agreed to participate in the control of the Ruhr and France renounced her intentions of annexing Rhineland, and the German reparations were reduced to £1,000,000/000. The Times adds: “The alleged agreement exists only in the imagination of the anonymous authors.” Mr Ramsay MacDonald, replying to an interview in French papers, in which he said Britain would ask for the payment of the French war debt, says: This is incorrect. What I did say was that if there were to be a general settlement, we could hot go on paying our debt to America and allow France, which is in better industrial condition than Britain, to disregard her obligations.” Mr MacDonald added with emphasis “We will never agree to anything which victimises Britain in the interests of any other State.”