FRENCH DEBT AGREEMENT

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 49, 4 July 1929, Page 2

FRENCH DEBT AGREEMENT

RADBCAL PARTY FAVOURS RATI FIG AT! A DEBT TO AMERICA. PARIS, July .2. The Radical Party has decided to vote in favour of the ratification of the debt agreements on July 9, when the Chamber of. Deputies will hold a debate. This is regarded as qssnring M. Poincare of an adequate ni.ajor.ty, in which event the question of the £80,000,000 owing to the United States' for war material will also he satisfactorily disposed of. Shortly after the war America offered to sell France all the war material the United States then had in Europe for £80,000,000, stating that if it were not sold it would either be sent to America or destroyed on the spot.

I France badly needed much of the i material, therefore, M. Koitz, then Finance Minister, concluded what I proved a had bargain for France. America last month agreed to absorb this £80,000,000 into the Fran-co-American debt-funding agreement, known as the Mellon-Beren-ger agreement, provided France ratified the agreement by August 1. France wants to see the Young plan adopted first, but America declines to wait. France faces plication arising from the fact that under the London agreement of July, 1926, debt payments to Britain must not be inferior to those to America, therefore if France Itays America £80,000,000 it pay Britain a siniilar amount. The American Government has refused the French Government's request fo r a postponement of the payment of the £Bo,ooo,ooo.—Australian Press Assn.