GENOA TO END.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1922, Page 5

GENOA TO END.

CONCLUSION NEXT WEEK. IMPORTANT DECISIONS. ■DICTATION OF FRANCE. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received May W*, p.m. London, May 13. Mr. -J. L. Garvin (editor of the Observer). writing from Genoa, says:— “The official decision was expected some days ago, but was postponed by shuffling for a few days more. The conference will be over next week —it may finish sooner—in quiet agreement on Thursday in an open sitting with utterances which will resound through Europe.

“M. Barthou has returned from Paris with a double ultimatum from M. Poincaire framed to snatter the conference. M. Poincaire has practically issued orders to the conference, to 30 nations in general and to Mr. Lloyd George in particular. At first M. Barthou was instructed to support Belgium unconditionally on the pedantic and useless property clause, framed regardless of the practical interest of British commerce, the employment 6? which few of our neighbours understand and fewer still consider a reason, as Brussels in this matter was the willing mouthpiece of Paris itself. The second ultimatum was worse. His Majesty would not meet Mr. Lloyd George and the other signatories to the Treaty of Versailles to discuss, before May 31, what will happen thereafter in the expected case of German default.

“Never in the record of modern ententes and alliances had the Premier of one country been treated with more peremptory disregard by the Premier of another. Mr. Lloyd George, to secure the attendance of the French delegation at Genoa and to keep it there, made concession after concession, and he consented to the exclusion of forbidden subjects from the formal proceedings, though reparation and disarmament revision were bound to be vital matters for debate at all private meetings. By this cumulative and persistent course of dictation, M. Poincaire, of his own initiative, killed the Entente. Mr. Lloyd George spoke to M. Barthou and the other French representatives, but it is an egregious and futile falsehood to say he threatened that Britain would not only dissolve the Entente but seek anti-French connection with other Powers. What Mr. Lloyd George said was that M. Poincaire showed not the remotest knowledge of the British nation and acted regardless of the honor and strength of Britain, or those interests, the commerce, livelihood and existence of which concern its masses and classes alike. Mr. Lloyd George said that henceforth Britain would be ■with any Power for peace and with no Power against it.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

ATTITUDE OF KING GEORGE. ALOOF FROM THE CONTROVERSY. Received May 14, 11.50 p.m. Paris, May 14. King George declined on constitutional grounds M. Millerand’s proposal to meet during his tour of the battlefields. The King explained that a yneating between the two heads of the States during the Genoa differences •would assume a political aspect, which it was desirable to avoid. The Sunday Times’ Paris correspondent expresses the hope that the King’s refusal will terminate the persistent efforts made by the French Press to present the King as opposed to the policy pf his Ministers. —AusN.Z. Cable Assn.