FRENCH STORY OF PEACE OFFERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2412, 18 March 1915, Page 5

FRENCH STORY OF PEACE OFFERS

e WHAT A PARTY IX FRANCE . . WOULD HAVE YIELDED. Paris, February 10. Certain French newspapers to-day reprint with the consent of the Government censors an .article published in tho "Domoctate do Delemont," stating that ■previous to the battle of the Marne, a party existed in Fra-ice which fas ready to sign a peaco, at the same time ceding to Germany tho towns of Briey and Nancy, French Lorraine, the island of Madagascar, and the protectorate of Morocco, as well as paying an indemnity. The article continues: — ' "General Joffre, tho French Com-mauder-in-Chief; President. Point are, and most of the Cabinet Ministers were opposed to tho plan, but the'situation became so tense as to necessitate the resignation of Adolpho Messimy as Minister of War and the formation of a Ministry of National Defence. "After tho battle of the Maruo Germany proposed peace through ex-Pre-mier Joseph CaiUaux, offering to giva, up the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, with the exception of Strasburg, receiving in exchange a small zono on the North Sea coast, extending from Calais to Dunkirk. France, -in addition, was to acknowledge tho annexation of Belgium by Germany. " "The answer to this proposal was the signing of a convention by the Allies to make 110 separate pcace. After this M. Caillaux was appointed to an important position in the Pay Corps, but lator was relieved of this post and sent on a mission to Brazil."—New York "Post."