DEFENCE PACT DENIED.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 28 June 1924, Page 9

DEFENCE PACT DENIED.

Providing Security for France. RECENT UTTERANCES MISCONSTRUED. By Cable —Press Association —Corn-right. (Received 5.5 p.m., June 2 1 .) LONDON, June 26. Statements by Mr Macdonald aiid M. Herriot dispose oi the story of a pact in the event of German aggtession.

According to Paris despatches, M. Herriot explained that the Chequoi - conversations naturally bore on the co-operation of England and France in the maintenance of peace, and upon a guarantee for France in case of aggies sion, but lie did not claim tlieie luu, been a definite conclusion. He addeu that there was no question oi reducing the security given to France by the Versailles Treaty-. Germany- must bo disarmed in order that Europe could breathe freely. Declaration of promises would not suffice. He found Mr Macdonald in complete agreement with this point. Mr Macdonald’s Statement. In the House of Commons, ' Alt Macdonald, in reference to a statement attributed to M. Herriot in an interview with the “Independent Beige,” which aroused a furious controversy in tho Frnnco-Britisli Press, that in the event of a premediated German attack, he had received a firm promise that Britajn, as in 1914, would be on tho side of France and Belgium, and had an assurance of a firm Pact binding tho three countries, complained that his conversations with M. Herriot had been grossly misrepresented and falsified in certain newspapers. His communique of June 22, and his statement of June 25, covered tho wholo ground of the conversations. Tho reports mentioned in question were based on either confusion or imagination. There was absolutely no kind.oi undertaking as regards a defensive military alliance so far as the conversations with M. Herriot were concerned.

Interesting Interview. Widespread interest is evinced in Mi Norman Angell’s interview with M. Herriot. published in Hie No.» Leader.” M. Herriot explains the adoption of a new policy, giving France security against the German menace. M. Herriot proposes that the Allies should enter a pact for mutual assist ance under Articles X., XVI., and XXI. of the League of Nations, and that Germany should subsequently bo allowed to become a party to the Pact. M Herriot said: “I do not merely mean that Germany shall become a member of the League. I mean it to be open to her to join the Allied Pact, We shall accord Germany the protections embodied in the Pact if she assumes its obligations. My statement may astonish you. I will tell you something which will astonish you more : General Nollet. though a soldier, stands bv the principle of the inclusion of Germany in the Pact.”