ATTITUDE OF FRANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 59, 10 March 1936, Page 7

ATTITUDE OF FRANCE

HERR HITLER'S OFFER DECISION TO REFUSE IT i REFERENCE TO THE LEAGUE France Will Not Negotiate , With Germany L [By Telegraph—Pres* Association —Copyright! Received March 9, 9.55 a.m. PARIS, March 8. ' Cabinet had a long sitting and decided that Herr Hitler’s statement is not acceptable. A meeting of the Locarno Treaty signatories is being called for Tuesday at Paris. M. Flandin will ask the League Council to be convoked. He has approved of military measures on the French frontier and has authorised the Ministers of War, Army, ! and Air, to prepare supplementary • measures. The Chamber meets on Tuesday when the Government will make a j statement. ; Cabinet’s refusal to entertain Herr Hitler’s proposals is backed by determination to demand eco- ■ nomic sanctions against Germany. The Government further considers ' itself entitled to the immediate assistance of England and Italy under the Rhineland Pact. A conference of the Locarno Powers will 1 discuss the crucial point in Paris on March 10. The Government has asked the League urgently to summon the Council, pointing out that despite Baron von Neurath’s announcement that Germany merely intended sym1 bolically to send small detachments ; into the demilitarised zone, important forces have already appeared ! in several localities. ’ • M. Sarraut flatly declines to ne- ; gotiate with Germany, basing his ; refusal on her two unilateral reI pudiations of solemn engagements J as destroying confidence in her ! offer; also on her unannounced entry into the Rhineland, thus fac- • ing Europe with a fait accompli. ! “International relations could no longer exist,” declared M. Sarraut in the course of a broadcast, “if this method became general. France serves European peace in opposing it. The mere installation of German troops along the Rhine forbids negotiations. We intend to insist on the maintenance of the essential guarantees for Franco-Belgian security which Locarno provides. Strassbourgh must not fall under the menace of German guns. It is indispensable that the Signatories to the Locarno Treaty must exchange views on Germany’s denunciation thereof. Our cause is, just and strong. Herr j Hitler makes the Franco-Russian i Pact the pretext for his action. That is a poor excuse, because the i Pact is not yet ratified by the Senate. His real object in acting now was to choose a time when the i French people might be divided by > the general election. No Frenchrcan merits the insult that he will a\ow internal differences to cause Fiance’s enslavement.’ ’ GERMANY ANGERED STUBBORNNESS OF FRANCE “A. CHANCE FOR PEACE'’ Received March 9, 11.26 p.m. BERLIN, March 9. The French Cabinet’s decision that Herr Hitler’s memorandum is unacceptable has angered German opinion and it is asked whether France will once again “throw away this decisive opportunity to bring about peace?” The Volkischer Boebachter expresses surprise at the primitive fashion in which the French actually swept aside Hitler’s farreaching proposals. “Do they think they have an exclusive right in Paris alone to determine the fate of Europe and remove freedom from all other great peoples?” asks tho paper. “It is to be hoped that conversations with diplomats of other nations will temper French stubbornness and that France will realise that the peace of the whole continent cannot be sacrificed for the sake of stupidity.”