The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-10
Premier Clemenceau Lauds Sacrifice Made by America on the Fields of Battle
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 ir tact and ready for immediate efficient operation. Industrially and commercial ly as between Franco and Prussia, for the present the victory is with the Hun.
 And financially, by reason of the blockade Che value of which as a milf tary factor no one will question:, the German war debt is almost wholly debt to her own people, easily repudiated, while the debt of France is one which must be paid. Here again the war has proved something like a Pyrrhic victory for France.
 "The French fortune invested abroad before the war was large, Some 59,000.- 000,o00 or 60.000 000,000 francs of French stock. What has become of that for tune? The best that we can hope for is that payments on about two-thirds of 1t may be considered as simply deferred; that the immense sum accumulated by French thrift and loaned abroad will be collectabe eventually.
 France has something like 20,000, COG, GOO francs invested in Russia, two-thirds of that sum in Russian government securi- ties and the remainder in industrial en- terprises. The French people had other billions in Balkan and Turkish obliga- Ations. Then just before the war the dis orders Tn Mexico deprivedus of any rev.  of francs invested there, and we are having the same experience with several otEer billions in South America, notably the immense French investments in rail- roads.
 FORTUNE HAS SHRUNK
 q mention some of these financial de- tails to show how the French fortune has shrrnk so that our people can no longer derive a large income from abroad. The paying investments abroad are rela- lively inconsiderably compared to the debts that France has contracted abroad during the war, particularly in America and in England. The French govern ment has also loaned considerable sums to her small allies, just as America has dcne with her associates.
 we look forward, therefore, to an immediate future in which we must re- gularly meet great interest charges in America and elsewhere abroad, to pro- vide which we will have only the re- sources at home.
 'If our national debts were due only to our own people the problem would not be so difficult, because we would not then have to consider the sending out of the country of great sums at disadvantageous rates of exchange The money collected from the French pe- pie, unequally perhaps. but neverthe- less the interest payments would re main in the country to be used partly for reconstruction and as capital Tor the development of our industrial life.
 "Even as to the military triumphs over Germany there is a situation not al together without disquieting features for France. It is quite true that the allies have taken the German navy and In large measure have disarmed the
 p,,t inc q ir yet fruitful Russia from which great help may be drawn by the Teutons.~
 BACKED BY WILSON
 With the British army demobilized, the American army back home and France isolated, there might be a dan ger of a reopening of the military de- bate by Germany which might embar- ras us were it not for the assurance which President Wilson gave us in tn Chamber of Deputies the other day that under the operation Of the league of nations, whenever France or any other free people is threatened the whole world will be ready to vindicate its liberty, so that there never shall be any doubt or waiting or surmise.' This has given us great solace. And so we bid the departing American sol diers 'godspeed and happy return to the peaceful firesides.
 ''Of course, a society of nations in which America and France enter must be supported profoundly by the convic- tion Of their peoples and by a determi~ nation of each nation entering into the agreement to be willing to renouce the ti aditional aloofness outside their own country both in time of peace as well as under the pressure of war
 We sh all Lave problems, but France will face them, as she has done, with courage and with an abiding faith in the il liumrh of right and justice. As was said of Chevalier Bayard, so mus it be said of France--she will continue 'sens peur ct sans reproche.'
 'All of our plans are based on the splendid platform laid down by Presi- dent Wilson. In perfect harmony with the principles whicf he has enunciated we are striving for higher and holier idealism in the conduct of affairs of the world Divested of all mercenary aspirations we join heartily and unre- servedly in the effort to make a better world and one of simple justice to all mankind"