FRENCH FOREIGN POLICY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 58, 2 December 1926, Page 11

FRENCH FOREIGN POLICY

STATEMENT BY JL BRIAND FRANCO-GERMAN RAPPROCHEMENT k • ESSENTIAL TO PEACE IN EUROPE M. Briand, in a statement on foreign policy, said it was hoped that France would not become involved in military operations in China, but French lives would be protected. 'A lasting European peace, he declared, was impossible without a Franco-German rapprochement. If another war broke out there would be no victors or vanquished. It would be Europe’s catastrophe. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

(Rec. December 1, 7.20 p.m.) Paris, November 30. M. Briand, in the course of a statement on foreign policy, said Syria and Tunis were settling down. France s treatment of these territories had been approved by the Mandates Commission. She had maintained a moderate attitude in China, trying to follow a policy conforming to Chinese interests, but France must protect her own citizens. “We shall not allow French throats to be cut,’’ M. Briand said. There was talk of a possible massacre of foreigners in Hankow. France would defend her Concession there if necessary, but it was hoped she would not become involved in military operations. ILL-HUMOURED INCIDENTS IN ITALY. There had been ill-humoured incidents in Italy. It was a pity that such ill-humour was always directed against France. Fortunately the incidents had not led' to serious results, but there was a limit to things. The Consulates and Legations should be respected. Relations now were satisfactory, and Frenchmen should not pay overmuch attention to the wild claims to French territory appearing in Italian newspapers. GERMANY AND THE LEAGUE. A lasting European peace was impossible without a Franco-German rapprochement. “Peace,” said M. Briand, "is a person difficult to please, demanding more than politeness. We must give ourselves to her entirely. The Covenant of the League cf Nations is the cornerstone of the Ver-

sailles Treaty, and the policy of the Locarno Pact merely amounts to putting the League into action. It was a great thing that Germany voluntarily signed the paper recognising the French frontier, and renouncing the settlement of disputes by force. We are not in the Rhineland in order to bully Germany. The occupation is a pledge for a specific object.” M. Briand declared that tlie German assertion, that France had not made concessions, was inexact. She bad made both concessions and sacrifices. Germany had not made any sacrifice. Her entry into the League was an honour, not a sacrifice. He was convinced that the substitution of the League’s military control in Germany for inter-Allied control would reinforce European security. If another war broke out there would be no victors or vanquished. It would be Europe’s catastrophe. GERMAN MINISTER ON THE OCCUPATION HAUNTED PEOPLE LIKE A NIGHTMARE” (Rec. December 1, 7.55 p.m.) Berlin, November 30. Speaking in the Reichstag, Dr. Bell, the newly-appointed Minister for Occupied Areas, said the occupation haunted the people like a nightmare, Germany had paid a high enough price for evacuation, and France’s concretepromises should be fulfilled.