CABINET RESIGNS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1932, Page 5

CABINET RESIGNS

CRISIS IN FRANCE. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT PROPOSED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) PARIS, January 12. The Cabinet Couiic I conciiiT-d in the desirability ot' 'forming a Govern ment of National Union, anci with tin, view, all the -Vlinisters placed th,n portfolios at Premier Laval s disposal. _\l Herriot (ex-Preniitr of France) lias refused Premier M. Laval's olio, oi the foreign .Ministry and of other portfolios. The Radical Socialists hav o refused to co-operate in a National Government. The Cabinet has now resigned. OPPOSITION BY SOCIALISTS. STEP NOT JUSTIFIED. PARIS, January 13. When the members of the Cabinet placed their resignations in Premier Laval’s hands for the purpose of a reshuffling, they little thought that their action would, in a few hours, lead to the end of the Ministry.

M. Laval was authorised by the Cabinet to construct a Government of National Union, so tiult the country might face the Lausanne Reparations Conference unitedly. Be corsu.ted his opponents, the chief of whom is M, Herriot, who, with his following of 125 radical Socialist deputies, held the key to the position. The Premier offered M. Herriot the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and a fair proportion of the other appointments. ‘ M. Herriot consulted his Party, by whom the invitation was declined, on the ground that they were not convinced that the foreign situation justified the broadening of the basis of the Cabinet. Nevertheless, M. Herriot emphased that he had placed national above Party interest. In the face of this reverse, M. Laval visited the President, and tendered his own and his Ministers resignations.

INSULTS TO FRANCE

GERMAN LEADER’S OUTBURST

BERLIN, January 13. “One of us 'liiusit die and it is thou, dog of a Frenchman, because we must live,” declared Herr Spangeftiacher, the National ‘Socialist Leader in the [Reichstag, while speaking at Oldenburg. He expressed the hope that German troops would soon be marching across the Rhine against France, who was their deadliest foe. He added insulting epithets regarding both !M. Briand and iM. Laval. BRITISH CABINET MEETING. RCGRY, January 12. Tlr Cabinet meeting, to-morrow, will bg devoted tq reparations and disarmament problems. The report of Sir Leith Ross on his convevsat’ons with the French Finance Ministry will be available. Mr MacDonald, to-night, discussed reparations issue in the light of 'the Basle report with Mr Nevilie Chamberlain. AX ITALIAN VIEW. LONDON, January 12. The article in the “Popolo D’Daiia" as widely quoted, and attributed in some quarters to Signor Mussolini himself. It refers approvingly to Mr Shaw’s Liverpool speech (suggesting cancellation of old war debts). The writer states he hopes that the Lausanne Conference will end by wiping the slate clean of the war's tragic bal-ance-sheet.