FRENCH INTERESTS

Southland Times, Issue 19290, 8 July 1924, Page 5

FRENCH INTERESTS

WILL THEY BE SACRIFICED? OPPOSITION PROPAGANDA THE LONDON CONFERENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) PARIS, July 7. (Received July 7, 11 p.m.) The Opposition has launched a big antiHerriot offensive. The extremists are demanding the immediate overthrow of the Government, but the more moderate Oppositionists are trying to prevent M. Herriot going to London until he has reassured the public that French interests will not be sacrificed. M. Herriot, in the course of a speech at Troyer, declared that the Experts’ Report offered France the best chance of securing peace and payment of the Reparations. He deplored the efforts of the Opposition to distort and belittle the character of the meeting at Chequers. He stated that the Government method was to pursue that which united, not that which divided. THE BRITISH INVITATION. ENFORCING THE DAWES PROPOSAL. TREATY NOT TO BE INTERFERED WITH. ROME, July 6. The British Government’s letter inviting Italy to attend the London Conference says that the main aim is to forge an instrument formally pledging the contracting parties to the execution of some of the suggestions in the Dawes report. It might be in the form of protocol as it was intended to avoid any appearance of a desire on the part of the Allies to modify the Treaty of Versailles. The British Government favours fixing, in the protocol, the date by which Germany shall complete the legislative and other measures she is required to adopt and a later date, perhaps a fortnight after, when all economic and fiscal sanctions at present enforced upon Germany (and which interfere with economic activities in Germany) shall be withdrawn. It is proposed that the protocol shall include a stipulation establishing, in the event of flagrant failure on Germany’s part, an authority that will decide regarding the non-execution of treaty engagements into which Germany shall enter according to the Dawes report. It will rank before those imposed on her by the Treaty of Versailles; therefore the British Government is of the opinion that the task of deciding questions relating to flagrant nonexecution cannot be entrusted to the Reparations Commission, the functions of which are strictly determined by the Versailles Treaty. It is therefore proposed that recourse should be had to the Committee of the League of Nations. The invitation emphasises the fact that M. Herriot and Mr Ramsay MacDonald have not entered into any engagement.