The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-05-01
BRITISH, ITALIAN
 DELEGATES BRING
 ENTIRE NEW PLAN
So Serious Is Situation ConSid- cred That Lloyd George ls- sues Call for Immediate
 Meeting of Cabinet
By Associated Press

London, April 30.-A sharp dlfter- ence of opinion between the French on the one side and the British and Italians on the other, arose this aft ernoon at the meeting of the supreme council to consider enforcement G the treaty of Versailles and the steps to be taken to enforce payment of the separations by Germany. 1 Premier Briand of france. who had the support of M. Jaspar, the Be'e an 1 foreign minister, made strons fight for the Paris plan, which includes ina mediate occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany, while the British prime minister, Lloyd George, and Count Sforza, the Italian foreign minister, brought up new proposals unda: which the conference should decide how the obligation was to be sats- i fled and then issue an ultimatun, which would have a brief time limit, to Germany. The experts tonight are considering the two schemes and will report at another meeting of the su- rreme council Sunday morning. | So serious was the situation
 considered that Mir. Lloyd George,
 who was accompanied in the con-
 ference by Earl Curzon, the foreign minister, called immediate
 meeting of the British cabinet to l discuss the matter.
 PROTRACTED SESSION 1 Todays meeting of the supreme council was a, protracted one. NJ. | l}riand taking a long time to explain l the French plan to Count Sforza and M Jaspar, who had not had the advan- tage of being present at Hythe when | the French premier discussed the mat ter with Mir. Lloyd George. Only this morning was 1t made known that the British had a new scheme to offer which was communicated to M Briand when he went to Downing street at noon for short talk with Mir. Lloyd George. It was exIained from the Brit lsh side, after the meeting of the coun- Gil, that the new move was made owing to the finding of the reparations commission that the German indebted ness was f6,600. Q00,000. This 1t ] was said, greatly altered the situation. as It was necessary in applying the penalties that the provisions of the treaty should be observed.
 It was no surprise to find Count 1 Storza supporting the British plan. as IL had been known Italy was strongly opposed to occupation of the Ruhr un- less It was found absolutely neces- sary in order to enforce payment of the I reparations.
 MAY FIND WAY OUT
 Tonights meeting of the experts may 'hu way out of the difficulty and to- morrow's meeting of the supreme co,n- fcil may be able to compose the differ ences or md middle course, but the uiplomats took serious view of the st- uatlon, Tor if no agreement is reached M Briand is faced with the prospect or having France advance into the Ruhr region alone or at best with the Bell slans. or placing his cabinet in jeopardy.
 Military experts were not present at today's meeting, but diplomats and Nnanciers were there in strong force, Lloyd George had Earl Curzon at hisN risht hand and other officials at his beck and call; M. Briand was accom- panied by NJ. Loucheur, minister for the devastated regions, and M Berthelot general secretary of the foreign office: Count Sforza by the Marquis Della Tor retai Baron Hayashi, Japanese ambassa- dor to Great Britain, by Koho Mori Japan's financial representative in Eu- rope, and M. Jaspar by M. Theunys Bel gian minister of finance
 It was said after the reparations oues- ton was disposed of some of the allies expressed a desire to discuss Italy's al- legged breach of faith in entering into . treaty with the Turkish nationalists
 After adjournment of the allies su- preme council this evening, an official statement was issued, which read:
 MT Lloyd George presided at the first meeting Of the .inter-allied conference which was devoted to examination of tha situation created by the total failure oe Germany to execute the terms of tho treaty of Versailles in respect to disarm- ament, punishment of war criminals and reparations
 The conference adjourned after decid- ing upon an immediate meeting of the committees of experts to study measures and guarantees"
 The council sat four and a half hours Y Premier Briand explained the French ,aIaxif and viewpoint at great length. He was closely questioned by the other delegates. especially by the Italians, regarding the proposed occupation of the Ruhr. Count Sforza, head of the Italian delegation, finally said that as there were many in- tricacies to the plan he would like h.s expert advisers to have an opportunity to examine it more closely. This was agreed to and the Italian experts will meet tonight to consider the plan com pletely.
 The council then adjourned until II o'clock Sunday morning.