FRANCE AND BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19057, 9 July 1924, Page 5

FRANCE AND BRITAIN

REMOVAL OF MISUNDERSTANDING MR MACDONALD GOING TO PARIS The meeting of Mr. MacDonald and M. Herriot at Chequers, when they discussed the forthcoming International Conference, has raised a storm of criticism in Trance, where the British Premier’s memorandum is being construed as in- ' dicating that Britain will leave Trance at the mercy of Germany. Mr. MacDonald is going to Paris to confound the mischief-makers. His decision has gratified French opinion. REMARKABLE EFFECT ON FRENCH PEOPLE PESSIMISM DISPELLED. Received July 8, 9.45 p.m. Reuter. PARIS, July 8. Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s decision to pay an immediate visit has produced a remarkable change in tone, and dispelled an increasing wave of pessimism. The visit is regarded as a rebuke to the unscrupulous anti-Herriot campaign. The Daily Telegraph’s Paris correspondent says Mr MacDonald’s decision has created something of a sensation in political circles, and is taken as proof of the importance he attaches to removing, without delay, all AngloFrench misunderstandings prior to the conference. It has had the immediate effect of postponing the foreign affairs attack w'hich M. Poincare had planned to lead in the Senate on Tuesday. STORM IN TEACUP. MR. MACDONALD PURSUES MISCHIEF MAKERS. Received July 8, 10.30 p.m, (Reuter) ‘ LONDON, July 7. In the House of Commons, Mr. MacDonald said he was not going to allow, if he could help it, any mischief'maker on either side of the Channel to destroy the prospects of an AngloFrench settlement. It was too horrible to contemplate the charge that the British Government was trying to abolish the Reparation Commission. He hoped if an agrement could be reached on the experts’ report that it could be supplemented by an interAllied agreement. Then, in the event of wilful default by Germany after she had accepted the experts’ report, the Allies should stand shoulder to shoulder, pressing her responsibilities upon her, but who was going to decide in respect of the experts’ report whether Germany was wilfully defaulting or not. Any agreement would be additional to, and not a substitution for, anything proposed in the Versailles Treaty. He emphasised that Belgium, Italy and Japan were all satisfied at the form of invitation, and declared that the complaint against it was made for purposes which required further explanation. The whole affair was a mere storm in a tea cup.