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GERMANY.
Army of Occupation on the Rhine.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 49 (27), Con- clusion 4).
REPARATIONS.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 2 (25), Con- clusion 1.)
5.
Lord Cushendun referred to the conversations
which had taken place at Geneva in regard to the
possible termination of the Allied occupation of
the Rhineland as desired by Germany, full particu-
lars of which had already been circulated to the
Cabinet. He reminded his colleagues that he had
agreed that British experts should take part in
discussions on the question of Reparations by
Germany. In assenting to this Lord Cushendun
recalled that he had made it clear that
(i) our policy rests on the Balfour
Note and that British experts could participate in the discus- sions only on the understanding that we expected to obtain from Europe at least as much as we had to pay to America:
(ii) we could consent to no scheme which
implied an appeal to the United
States of America to release us from our debts.
Lord Cushendun also referred to the arrangement
which had been made for considering some form of
control er observation over the demilitarised zone
after the evacuation.
The Chancellor of the Ixchequer, disagreeing with (11) above, stated that the policy of the
Balfour Note is an implied appeal to the United
States to release us from being their debt collector in Europe.
While the Cabinet realised that the discus-
sions in regard to Reparations were not unlikely
to result in an attempt to represent the British policy of the Balfour Note as standing in the way of a European settlement, they fully appreciated
that the British Delegation at Geneva could not
possibly have resisted the proposed discussions.
2 Whitehall Gardens, S.W.1.
September 24th, 1928.
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