BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 5

BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

PREMIERS DIFFER. LLOYD GEORGE FIRM. ON ORIGINAL OFFER. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Feb. 3, 8.50 p.m. London, Feb. 2. The Daily Chronicle states that the Anglo-French negotiations have reached an acute stage, resulting in the exchange of communications on the AngloFrench pact and Near East, wherein M. Poincare (Premier) sets out tne French point of view on international affairs, and Britain makes it plain that view is not hers.

M. Poincare has required, regarding the pact, firstly, an annual Franco-Bri-tish consultation upon the general military situation in Europe; secondly, the extension of the British guarantee of French soil against attack to include a guarantee against attack in the Rhineland.

The British reply refused to go beyond Mr. Lloyd George’s original offer. France's first amendment would transform the pact into a military instrument for the reconstruction of Europe on an armed basis, while the inclusion of the Rhineland in the pact would mean that Britain was shouldering as her own an obligation which, under the Versailles Treaty, is common to all the Allies, and would also create a state of affairs wherein Britain might find herself automatically at war, where a reasonable interpretation of facts or the commonsense opinion of Europe as a whole, could find a peaceable solution.

Britain’s reply regarding the Near East lays down the principle that until absolute solidarity is reached between Britain, France, and Italy, there is no prospect of a solution.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.