BRITAIN AND FRANCE

Southland Times, Issue 19291, 9 July 1924, Page 5

BRITAIN AND FRANCE

PREMIER GOES TO PARIS A POLITICAL SENSATION GOOD EFFECT APPARENT. (By Telegraph—F.e.ss Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, July 8. (Received June 8, 11 p.m.) It is officially announced that the Prime Minister leaves this morning on a visit to Paris in connection with the negotiations for the proposed London Conference. PARIS, July 8. (Received July 9, 1 a.m.) Mr MacDonald’s decision to pay an immediate visit has produced a remarkable change in tone, and has dispelled the increasing wave of pessimism. His visit is regarded as a rebuke to the unscrupulous anti-Herriot campaign. LONDON, July 8. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that Mr MacDonald’s decision has created something of a sensation in political circles, and is taken as proof of the importance he attaches to removing, without delay, all Anglo-French misunderstandings, prior to the London Conference. It had the immediate effect of postponing the attack on the foreign affairs policy of the Government, which M. Poincare had planned to lead in the Senate on Tuesday. Le Temps says: “In France, as in England, the people like those who take personal trouble. The public will therefore cordially welcome Mr MacDonald. May he quickly reach an understanding with M. Herriot in the search for an equitable agreement for the security of France and the application of the Dawes’ report.” THE PREMIER EXPLAINS. NO FOUNDATION FOR STORM. LONDON, July 7. In the House of Commons Mr Ramsay MacDonald declared that there was absolutely no foundation whatever for the storm which had arisen regarding the invitations to the Conference on July 16, and pointed out that the communications made to Italy, Japan, the United States, and Belgium were merely a repetition of the British suggestions concerning the task at the forthcoming Conference, which had already been submitted to and fully discussed by the Belgian Minister and M. Herriot at Chequers. These suggestions were simultaneously embodied for the purposes of record in a semi-official communication from the Permanent Head of the Foreign Office to the Permanent Head of the French Foreign Office. No communication in this connection had been made by cr on behalf of the British Government to the German Government. This communication ■would be published with a lengthier one later. BRITISH MEMORANDUM. THE ITALIAN VIEWPOINT. LONDON, July 6. The Rome correspondent of \.ie Times says: “Political circles are disinclined to attach much political importance to the storm in Paris over Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s memorandum on the London Conference. The Italian Government quite definitely takes the view that the memorandum simply expressed the British viewpoint, and that no undertaking to agree to it was involved. It is understood, however, that the suggestions are favourably regarded.” MISCHIEF-MAKERS. MR MACDONALD’S DETERMINATION. “A STORM LN A TEA-CUP.” LONDON, July 7. (Received July 9, 1 a.m.) In the House of Commons, Mr Ramsay MacDonald said that he was not going to allow, if he could help it, any mischiefmaker on either side of the Channel to destroy the prospects of an Anglo-French settlement. It was too horrible to contemplate the charge that the British Government was trying to abolish the Reparations Commission. He hoped that if an agreement could be reached on the Experts’ Report, it could be supplemented by an inter-Allied agreement; then, in the event of wilful default by Germany after she had accepted the Experts’ Report, the Allies should stand shoulder to shoulder pressing the responsibilities upon her. However, who was going to decide in respect of the Experts’ Report whether Germany was wilfully defaulting or not? Any agreement would be additional to, and not a substitution for anything proposed in the Treaty of Versailles. He emphasised that Belgium, Italy, and Japan were all satisfied with the form of the invitation, and declared that the complaint against it was made for purposes which required further explanation. The whole affair was a mere storm in a teacup.