FINAL SETTLEMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1929, Page 13

FINAL SETTLEMENT

REPARATION BY GERMANY EVACUATION OF RHINELAND SATISFACTION IN BRITAIN BRIGHTER TRADE OUTLOOK By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Australian Press Association. The Hague, Aug. 29. Germany and the six other Powers have reached a financial agreement on reparations. An announcement to this effect was made when the meeting of the six Powers ended. It was then stated that a full agreement had been reached regarding tho costs of occupation - after September 1, also in regard to the surplus during the last five months of tho Dawes plan. The actual document embodying the agreement is now being drafted. The first problem was solved by Germany agreeing to pay half, and England, France and Belgium the other half. Britain contributed io the settlement by agreeing to renounce in Germany’s favour a portion of her unconditional annuities. The financial settlement includes cancellation of the right of re-export of deliveries in kind. Germany will reduce the proportion of coal sent to Italy in the first year by one and a-half million tons. Britain will thus benefit to the extent of a million tons annually. It is announced that the five Powers have reached an agreement with Germany and that the three Rhineland Powers have reached an agreement on the political questions, entailing the beginning of the evacuation in September and completing tho withdrawal of the Anglo-Belgian troops in three months. France will simultaneously be evacuating the second zone, and the third zone will bo evacuated after ratification by tho Franco-German Parliaments and implementation of the Young plan, after which the withdrawal will proceed as rapidly as possible, and be completed not later than the end of June, 1930. This agreement depends on the financial settlement by Germany.

The newspapers pay warm tributes to Mr. Snowden’s conduct of the negotiations and his success, not merely in securing a definite reduction in the British financial sacrifice, but in stating with determination the British viewpoint, which on grounds of pure, justice has never been challenged, and insisting that it should be taken into proper account.

In presenting bis report to the political commission, in which the Rhineland evacuation decisions were recorded, the British delegate, Mr. A. Henderson, chairman of the commission, said he believed it would give satisfaction to all the Governments and peoples concerned.

M. Briand and Dr. Stresemann paid warm tributes to the patience and skill displayed by Mr. Henderson as chairman of tho commission.

ITALY TO PURCHASE WELSH COAL

PART OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT

(British Official Wireless.) Rugby, Aug. 29. The announcement that Italy has agreed to purchase 1,000,006 tons of British coal yearly for three years at the best British market export prices, as part of the new reparations settlement has been received with gratification at Cardiff, though it is not anticipated that it will have any very marked effect on the coal export trade of South Wales. Before the war Italy took about 5,000,000 tons annually of South Wales coal, but last year, owing to the effect of the German reparations coal, this fell approximately 2,000,000 tons. The Primo Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who will be accompanied by his daughter, Miss Ishbel MacDonald, will leave London for Geneva on Saturday morning to attend a meeting of the League of Nations.