BRITISH TRADE INTERESTS.

The local negotiations between the British and Allied authorities in the Rhineland having failed to satisfy the most urgent needs of British trade in and through that region, direct representations have been made to the French Government on the subject, and are started to have been answered with a promise of earnest and sympathetic consideration. What is sought is as near a return to preruhr conditions as possible. France can hardly claim the right to levy duties higher than those prescribed in the German tariffs. In the matter of the conflicting Allied and German ordinances on export licences, it is hoped that the German Government will show an accommodating spirit as well as the French.

It is possible that the attention of the French Government will be drawn to the Mannheim Convention, which, as amended by the Treaty of Versailles, still maintains the freedom of navigation on the Rhine, and vests the controlling authority in a Commission which has its seat at Strasbourg. Moreover, there exists under the Treaty of Versailles and by the authority of the League, a wider convention which governs the freedom of trade and navigation on all the internationalised inland waterways of Europe. If necessary, the Supreme Court at The Hague could be resorted to for any authoritative interpretation of the relevant Treaties and Conventions.