FRANCE AND GERMANY.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15183, 8 March 1923, Page 5

FRANCE AND GERMANY.

FRENCH METHODS IN RUHR AFFECTING UNITED STATES TRADE. DEALERS SEEK OFFICIAL PROTEST. (Australian and N.Z. Gable Assn.) WASHINGTON, March 6. Mr Hoover, in a statement, said the Ruhr occupation was causing serious interference with American commerce, although it might be due to the confusion attending the occupation rather than to the French Government's policy of obstruction. Scores of important American business groups, particularly drug and dye traders, are endeavouring to obtain the United States Administration's protest against French methods in the Ruhr. The State De. partment is conducting cursory investigations. . THE BRITISH ZONE. CONTROL OF RAILWAYS. AGREEMENT WITH FRENCH. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, March 6. A message from Paris states that General Payot and General Sir A. J. Godley have reached an agreement regarding the use of the railways in the British zone on the Rhine by the French authorities. No details are available. The Cologne correspondent of the Daily Express in an earlier despatch asserted that the delicate situation east of the British bridgehead had been accentuated by the French tightening the blockade on exits from the British area in the neighbourhood of Lennep. Unpleasant Anglo-French incidents had been already reported and a new movement of French troops near Reinscheid, so near to the boundary of the British zone, enhanced the danger of a clash. APPEAL TO THE WORLD.

GERMANY AS PLAINTJFF.

(Australian and N.Z. Cabile Assn.) BERLIN, March 7.

The German Chancellor, Herr Cuno, addressing a specially-summoned meeting of the Reichstag, detailed the history of French acts of injustice in the Ruhr. He fervently appealed to the world to consider Germany's position. He accused M. Poincare of being afraid to tell the French people the truth about the Ruhr campaign. French terrorism, he said, had succeeded in uniting Germany, and would never succeed in anything else. Germany was resolved to hold on to the end. /

Herr Cuno pointed out that France's so-called restricted use of soldiers for the occupation.in fact meant occupation by five divisions, 75 tanks, and hundreds of aeroplanes. The Rhineland Commission, not heeding legal grounds, simply issued decree after decree, and placed itself at the service of French violence, but France reckoned without the loyalty of German officials.