FRENCH POLICY ON RUHR AND SAAR

Chronicle (Levin), 8 April 1946, Page 5

FRENCH POLICY ON RUHR AND SAAR

I NO CHANGE TO BE MADE . " * LONDON, April 7. | A head-on clash between M. Bidault t and M. Gouin over the Premier's recent j announcement that France might he 1 content with economic rather than I political control of the Ruhr was tem- j porariiy avoided at a chilly meeting of t the French" Cabinet on Friday nigkf, says Reuter's Paris correspondent. M. Gouin averted the threat of a Goyernment crisis when, in the interests : of untty, he said he would not for the j time being, insist" that the policy of j iptqrnationalisation of the Ruhr sbpuld i be mfbdified in order to secure a pactl with Britain. French policy, therefore, ; repjains as laid down hy General de 1 Gaulle and def ended hy M, Bidault, , who has thus succeeded in getting en- j dorsement of his policy for internation- 1 alisation of the Ruhr. The French newspapers generally re- ! gard the meeting as a triumph for M. i Bidault, but it'is pointed out in Social- : ist quarters that the real reasons for | M- Gouin's apparent concession is the I Socialists' strong desire to keep the' three-party coalition in heing, at leastj ,until the new constitution and electoral'i law are voted on. The Times' diplomatic correspondent ! says the first and over-riding response i in Whitehall to the news of M. Gouin's j conciliatory action was one of con- 1 gratulations and reljef that the unity of the French Cabinet had heen pre- } served. The departure of M. Bidault J would he particularly regretted. The correspondent adds: "French 1 policy has heen reclarifled after hecom- j ing confused, hut in the same process J the differences hetween the British and ±Tench conceptions of security in Western Germany were also again clearly revealed. Enoitgh has beert said on the French side to show that they would regard an Anglo-French treaty as largely meaningless unless an understanding on Western Germany is reached or is in prospect. The Ruhr is the key to the treaty." M. Jean Terfve, secretary of the Belgian Communist Party, and Minister of Reconstruction in the new Governmenfc, said that the Belgian Commun ists sp.pported the French Communists in demanding international control of the Ruhr and the Rhineland resources. M. Terfve added that he considered that such control offered a strong guarantee fpr Belgium's security.