FRANCE AND GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 19125, 18 December 1923, Page 5

FRANCE AND GERMANY

NEGOTIATIONS OPENED M. POINCARE’S VOLTE FACE SPECULATION ON THE CAUSE. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, December 16. The German Charge d’Affaires, Herr von Hoesch, and Herr Roediger waited respectively on M. Poincare and M. .Jaspar in Paris and Brussels and made similar remaps with reference to Reparations, the Ruhr, and the Rhineland. Von Hoesch proposed the constitution of a commission with a view to restoring administrative machinery in those districts. M. Poincare said it was impossible to discuss the powers conferred on the Reparation Commission by the Treaty. It was impossible for France to deprive her agents in the occupied territory of their proper authority. There could be no question of modifying conditions there. In the inter-Allied Rhineland the Commission administered the territory in order to avoid all possibility of misunderstanding. M. Poincare requested Herr von Hoesch to prepare a written statement explaining the views of his Government. Herr von Hoesch undertook to furnish a statement at the earliest moment. M. Jaspar took cognisance of M. Roediger’s declaration and stated that he would communicate with the French Government with a view to reply. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Chronicle says M. Poincare’s long period of passive resistance has ended. For nearly a year he has stubbornly turned a deaf ear to representatives both from Britain and Germany. Now he is going to hear Germany’s case.

The Quai d’Orsay says the volte face is due to passive resistance in the Ruhr ending. Others contend it is due to fear as to what will happen to the Entente in the event of a Labour Government coming into power in Britain.

The Cologne correspondent of the Times says that different indications point to January 1 as the date on which the question of the Rhineland will come to a head. The German Government has already announced its intention of stopping payments, which it is at present making, for the maintenance of the Army of Occupation. It will then remain to be seen whether France will exert pressure to extort further payments or agree to reduce the garrisons and meet the costs herself. A GERMAN VIEW. ENGLAND IMPOTENT. POINCARE MASTER OF THE SITUATION BERLIN, December 17. (Received December 17, 11 p.m.) Hie general belief is that England is paralysed in foreign affairs and that M. Poincare is using the fact against Germany, for which reason the French Premier has chosen the present time to declare negotiations possible. PARIS, December 17. Directly Herr von Hoesch delivered the German proposals in writing, M. Poincare began drafting a reply, in which he said: France will not consent to the withdrawal of the Franco-Belgian authorities in the Ruhr or the inter-Allied Commission in other parts of the occupied territory, but is willing to accept any conversations relative to the prorogation of the agreement with the German magnates. M. Poincare concluded by calling attention to the fact that the inter-Allied Commission of Military Control had not resumed regular working. Until this was done, Germany was not loyally executing the Treaty of Versailles. While advanced Republican organs desire M. Poincare to proceed with negotiations, the Nationalists newspapers regard the German move with much suspicion and urge M. Poincare not to give up any pledges given.