FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Southland Times, Issue 20042, 2 December 1926, Page 7

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

FRANCE’S POLICY

IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY BRIAND FRANCO-GERMAN RAPPROCHEMENT ESSENTIAL (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.! (Rec. 7.20 p.m.) Paris, November 30. M. Briand, in the course of a statement on foreign policy said Syria and Tunis were settling down. France’s treatment of these territories had been approved by the Mandates Commission. She was maintaining a moderate attitude in China, trying to follow a policy conforming to Chinese interests, but France must protect her own citizens. “We shall not allow French throats to be cut,” M. Briand said. There was talk of a possible massacre of foreigners in Hankow. France would defend her concession there if necessary, but it was hoped she would not become involved in military operations. There had been ill-humoured incidents in Italy; it was a pity such illhumour was always directed against France. Fortunately the incidents had not led to serious result but there was a limit to things. Consulates and legations should be respected. Relations were now satisfactory and Frenchmen should not pay over-much attention to wild claims to French territory appearing in the Italian newspapers. A lasting European peace was impossible without Franco-German rapprochement. “Peace,” said Briand, “is a person difficult to please, demanding more than politeness; we must give ourselves to her entirely. The covenant of the league of Nations is the cornerstone of the Versailles Treaty and the policy of the Locarno Pact merely amounts to putting the League into action. It was a great thing that a German voluntarily signed a paper recognising the French frontier and renouncing the settlement of the disputes by force. We are not in the Rhineland in order to bully Germany; the occupation is a pledge for a specific object.” M. Briand declared the German assertion that France had not made concessions was inexact. She had made both concessions and sacrifices. Germany had not made any sacrifice. Her entry into the League was an honour, not a sacrifice. He was convinced the substitution of the League’s military control in Germany for inter-Allied control would reinforce European security. If another war broke out there would be no victors or vanquished; it would be Europe’s catastrophe.—A. and N.Z.