NAVAL PACT

Southland Times, Issue 20613, 11 October 1928, Page 7

NAVAL PACT

LEAKAGE OF DETAILS CORRESPONDENT TO LEAVE FRANCE HEARST’S ACTION CRITICIZED (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5. p.m.) London, October 9. The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post says that there is considerable sympathy with Mr Harold Horan, chief Paris correspondent of the Universal International News Services, which serve the Hearst Press. Mr Horan has been asked to leave France owing to his connection with the leakage of the Anglo-French naval compromise. Mr Hearst, who handed the document to Mr Horan, is regarded as the grand criminal of the piece. It is generally believed that he obtained the document at Geneva and his conduct is even less inexcusable when it is realized that on his return from Geneva he was welcomed officially by the French Government as an honoured guest; also at the very moment of dining with M. Berthelot at the Quai d’Orsey (Foreign Office) he had in his pocket the document from M. Berthelot’s Department to which he had no moral right and which he intended to use to the detriment of France. In other quarters it is stated that the documents bore the imprint “French section of the League of Nations,” therefore it is held that it was not the property of the French Foreign Office, but of the League. It is stated that it had been handed to Mr Hearst at a private luncheon party by a high official of the Quai d’Orsay who, it is believed, was hostile to the idea of a naval pact.—Australian Press Association.