Evening star., 1922-03-18
FRENCH DELEGATES
BITTERLY
Sarraut Answers Critics at
Joint Meeting of Parliament
Commissioners.
BY the Associated Press.

| PARIS, March 1.-THE appearance
today of Premier Poincare and Albert
Sarraut, minister of the colonies. be-
, fore the joint foreign affairs and
| army and navy commissions which
| desired explanations of the treaties
and. undertakings entered upon by
/ France at the Washington armament
i conference, brought about one of the
! stormiest meetings of the commits
sions in years. NJ. Sarraut headed
the French delegation in Washing
ton after the departure of NJ. BRAND.
then French premier.
| The French delegation to Washing
! ton was bitterly attacked. especially
because of its alleged failure to be
! represented at the preliminary de-
liberations leading up to the four
power treaty.
| NJ. Sarraut expressed himself as per-
| fectly satisfied with the result of the
! Washington conference as far as
| France was concerned. He protested
vigorously against the widespread
| report that the French delegates had
gone to Washington without prepara-
ton. France, he said, was as well
prepared as any other power, as had
been shown by the results. which he
/ described as perfectly satisfactory.
NJ Poincare was more guarded in
his statements.
| He did not adversely criticise. but
! at the same time he was not over
enthusiastic in his approval of the
work done by Premier BRAND. When
! challenged by NJ. Andre Tardieu, who
said France had suffered the deep
| est humiliation of many centuries by
J being excluded from tlH early de-
| liberations, M. 'Poincare replied:
Il am not the sponsor for the
| French delegation. j had nothing TO
| do with the shaping of its policies
or the naming Of its members"
Pledges for Future.
| Later in the discussion, Deputy Es-
! cudier. member of the navy COM
| mission. said he regretted the fact
| that Frances naval program had
| been 80 badly misrepresented." To
| this, NJ. Poincare replied: M. Sarraut
| has told you of the past. ] am speak
! France attend another conference
where she will not be treated on the
same footing with other countries"
1t was tacitly agreed between the
| interpellatorS and the government
! that there should be no discussions
! in the open chamber of deputies on
| the Washington compacts before the
| Senate ratifies or rejects them. The
probability of amendments being
! made in the agreements by the Amer
! lCdn senate was taken iHlO
| tion in reaching this conclusion. a
| majority of the commissions seemed
! disposed to postpone the matter in
| definitely. but while giving NJ. Poin-
! care their confidence, the hope was
/ freely expressed that the government
(, would not make ratification OF the
| Washington pacts a question OF con-
| fidence.
| Will Submit Treaties.
| An oRcioJ communication issued
after the meeting said that NJ. Poln-
care declared that all the conven-
| tions signed will be submitted to the
I; chambers of parliament as soon as
they are ratified at Washington, and
| that the juridical application of the
Root resolution on submarine war
fare will be examined into >at the
conference at The Hague at the same
time as the question concerning all
| methods of warfare are dealt with.
, The proceedings before commissions
I theoretically are secret, and the
| communications give only the various
outlines of them. That of tonight
| says NJ Sarraut gave most COM
i plete explanation of the conditions
| under which the Washington confer
! ence was organized, the nature of the
| discussions and the character of the
| treaties regarding the Pacific and
| Limitation of naval armament and the
Root resolution with regard TO China.
! 1t adds that finally NJ. Tardieu and
| thirteen deputies, whose names are
given, asked questions to which
Premier Poincare replied. The COM
missions thanked NJ. Poincare and
NJ. Sarraut for the clearneSS and
| frankness of their explanations.
The French senate. by vote of 23o
to .. today adopted the naval program
calling for abandonment of the con-
Struction of warships of the Norman
die type, the transformation of the
dreadnaught Bearn into a mother
ship for airplanes and the laying
down of certain light units.