THE OLD DIPLOMACY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16739, 22 May 1922, Page 5

THE OLD DIPLOMACY.

BRITISH AND FRENCH FRIENDSHIP. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, May 19. M. Paul Gambon and Count St Aulaire, past and present French Ambassadors, were entertained at luncheon in the House of Commons. Mr Austen Chamberlain, toasting the guests, said they had assembled to reaffirm the friendship between the two countries which had made common sacrifices, sacrifices which had left scars on all hearts, to be remembered for generations. They must havo their differences of opinion as tlieir interests differed. Let anyone haying influence in either country resolve to seek to see through the surface difficulties to the profound, underlying unity and let them use that influence to remove the misunderstandings and determine to find a friendly solution of all differences. “ I am not sure that M. C'ambon and T do not belong to a generation that is passing away,” said Mr Cbamberlain. “ T have a suspicion that M. Gambon still likes the old diplomacy with its reticence, silence and careful avoidance of the limelight of the Press. So do I. T wish it were given to us still to live in a world where those quiet ways satisfied the needs of the times. Whatever place there mav be in the future for the new methods, there will always be room for the older diplomacy M- Paul Gambon, P.C.L., LL.D.. was French Ambassador to the Court of St James’s since 1898. Prior to that he was Ambassador at Madrid and at Constantinople. LIBERAL LEADER’S POLICY. ALTERNATIVE TO RUPTURE LONDON, May 21. The leader of the Liberal Party, Mr Asquith, addressing the National Liberal Federation Conference at Blackpool. said that nothing was more vitai to the future of Europe than a cordial friendship between Great Britain and. France. Such friendship should not and did not involve identification of policy or methods upon every international problem. For instance, their French friends must be told quite frankly that Great Britain would not countenance her association with any coercive measures to extort impossible payments from Germany. The restoration of their relations with France all depended on an immediate readjustment of the questions of reparations and indemnities. If asked what he would do if in power he would reply, “ Scale down the aggregate of Germany’s indebtedness so as to c:o*» fine it to material damage actually caused by the war.” He would then endeavour to arrive, through the League of Nations, at methods and terms of payments which Germany could carry out without disaster and ruin to her trade or her trade with the rest of the world, and they would he of such a nature as would enable her trt obtain nn international lohii. He would abandon in favour of France and Belgium Great Britain’s claims to German reparations and also cancel their indebtedness to Great Britain. He predicted the foregoing policy would soon bo Britain’s policy. People talked lightly or incomprehensively of a rupture of relations with France. "What is the alternative ?” he “ Are we eroing back to our isolation of the latter part of the nineteenth century or to a system of groups under +he of balance of power? If so, for what was the war fought ?*'