PEACE TREATY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16464, 17 June 1919, Page 3

PEACE TREATY.

GERMAN COUNTER-PROPOSALS. NOT LIKELY TO BE ACCEPTED. ty Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. LONDON, June 15. The German counter proposals agree to the reduction of armaments, and ask that the period of transition be delayed, only the League of Nations supervising disarmament. The Saar question must he settled exclusively on an economic basis. A plebiscite in Alsace-Lorraine is demanded. If it favours France the latter should assume a proportion of the Gorman debt. Germany declines •to yield Danzig, and asks that a special committee shall decide the fate of the colonies, which Germany is prepared to administer under the League if made an immediate member on an equality with the others. She also demands most favoured nation treatment for a term of year’s and freedom from tariffs by all nations. The reparations annuity for the first decade shall not exceed a billion marks, taxed on revenues, and the total not to exceed a hundred million (not a million as cabled- earlier) marks.—AuaNTZ. Cable Assn. WASHINGTON. June 15. The State Department has issued a •mnmary of the German counter-pro-posals, stating that Germany claims the right to retain the colonies on account of the improvements she made there. Germany agrees to pay the maximum reparation of a hundred billion marks, provided the Allies accept the other German counter-proposals regarding the overseas colonies and territories.^ Germany refuses to accept the trial of the ex-Kaiser or sanction his extradition, and demands immediate admission to the League of Nations. Germany finds the labour clauses in the treaty unsatisfactory. She also protests against the occupation of the Rhine provinces, and demands the Allies’ withdrawal within six months after peace is concluded. Germany proposes an international court composed of judges from neutral countries, to determine the share of war criminality of each belligerent.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. CZECHO-SLOVAK DIFFICULTIES. PARIS, June 10. _ The position of Czechoslovakia is ■becoming serious. Obviously they are not strong enough to withstand the Hungarian Bolshevist attacks, and urgently need help. The action of the Peace Conference is stopping the advance of the Roumanians when they practically had Budapest in their S, and Belakuns regime was totj, has accentuated the gravity of the position. The Conference has now telegraphed to the Hungarians to stop their hostilities, threatening extreme measures if the request is not complied with. The Council have also referred the question to the military experts. M. Clemenceau favours the dispatch of French and Roumanian troops now in Southern Hungary,-but President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd Georg© urge a policy of temporising.—Aus.-N.Z. (Cable Assn.

DELAYED COMMENTS. PARIS, June 10. Something approaching a deadlock lias arisen over the Allies’ reply to the German counter-proposals. M. demenceau is reported to be firmly adhering to the terms of the treaty, for the reason that French public opinion is strongly adverse to a change. The Council of Four considered the reports of the various commissions on the counter-proposals. It is believed the reply will fix the 19th June as the date on which the Gormans must say whether they will sign or decljne. There is good reason to believe that when the Germans receive the ultimatum they will declare they must refer the matter to the National Assembly for decision, and it is expected the latter will reject the treaty. The Germans hope this may cause a panic among the Allies, forcing them to enter into verbal negotiations.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. '