SUSPICION IN FRANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 491, 22 October 1928, Page 9

SUSPICION IN FRANCE

REPARATIONS PARLEY DEBTOR AND CREDITOR (United P.A . —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association} Reed. 1.33 p.m. PARIS. Sunday. All the newspapers confess that the secret of the Poincare-Churchill-Parker Gilbert reparations conference has been splendidly kept, though most of them are disposed to suspect something inimical to France. “L’lntransigeant” says it is all very well for Mr. Gilbert (Agent-General for Reparations), and Mr. Winston Churchill to say that the Dawes plan burden is crushing Germany, but until Mr. Gilbert convinces the United States that inter-allied debts are a crushing burden to France, and settlement of one depends on the other, nothing can be done. Well-informed circles assert that M. Poincare, as a means of inducing United States collaboration in the reparations negotiations, will shortly ask the Chamber of Deputies to ratify the. Mellon-Berenger debt agreement, which France is already carrying out. Failing ratification. France next August will have to pay America 400 billion dollars, popularly called her “chewing-gum debt.” SATISFACTORY THESES An authoritative statement has been issued in Paris. This says exchanges of views between the two Governments most interested in the problem of reparation concluded in a very satisfactory drawing together of their respective these as regards the essential principles of the miuimum demands the Governments will now attempt to ■win for their common viewpoint and the approval not only of the other Allied nations—ltaly, Belgium, and Japan—but Germany herself. The statement says the projected conference, may be held at the beginning of December in Berlin. The committee would thus have at its disposal all the information required as to Germany’s capacity to pay. No doubt steps will be taken to secure the presence of a semi-official observer from the. United States. INTEREST IN GERMANY A message from Berlin says the discussions have excited lively interest in Germany. They are considered to constitute an advance and to indicate Britain’s desire to co-operate in a definite settlement of the reparation question. Mr. Gilbert’s return to Berlin is awaited before the Governmeht takes action, but emphasis is laid on the fact that Mr. Gilbert was not authorised to make offers on behalf of Germany especially of concessions in return for the early evacuation of the Rhineland.