Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-03-16
F RANCE DQESN' 7
REQUEST DEBTS
CANCELLED SAYS
N. M|LLERAND
Premier Says Republic Only
Asks Time to Breathe Be-
fore LiQuidating Her Obi
cation to America.
CLOSE FRIENDSHIP IS
BURDEN OF HIS PLEA
To Pay at Present, Under
Existing Low Exchange
Rates, Would Add Addi-
tionaI Burden on Country

Paris, March 15.-Premier Mil
lerand today put aside the German
crisis long enough to discuss rela-
tions between France and the
United States and conditions of
International credit He said to a
Representative of the Associated
Press;
France and the United states
must continue the close friendship
which always has been maintained.
No fleeing MISUNDERSTANDING
must be allowed to trouble their
The sooner misconcep-
tions are dissipated the better.
ut apears to me an opportune
time. to recall to our friend, the
United States, that France Is not
asking for charity. The greater
part of money France borrowed
abroad was spent in the common
interest of all civilized countries
a fact which might form the basis
on a claim for special considera-
ton, but such is not our intention.
"We don't request cancellation of
our debts We only ask time TO
reathe and to recover our strength
after four and half years of eX-
austing war. our propositions are
those which any debtor would feel
right in making in the interest OF
both himself and his creditors.
The premier referred 70 the
ruinous Quotations in exchange,
which he held would be aggravated
rather than palliated through
measures proposed to France by
those not taking sufficient account
Of interior conditions.
"If France is obliged to meet her
obligations abroad at the present
rate of exchange she would be
forced to pay one and a half times
what she owes, he continued.
Thus, after spending for the cont
mon good, thirty billion francs bor-
rowed from her friends. she would
hq@9 TO pay forty-five billion francs
as Frances premium to the same
friends
eve have given our blood, we
lave given our money. TO ask us
now to give more than double our
debt is an anomaly that cannot fan
TO strike the most impartial
judges"
After mentioning the suggestion
made by the United States that
France could raise the value of the
frame by increasing expectations.
the premier said that the question
appeared to be imperfectly under
stood by the American people.
I'VE ask nothing better than IN
creased exports. We must FIRST
rowever, manufacture and we
can't make the things for foreign
trade until we have factories in
which to manufacture them. DO
our American friends lose sight OF
the extent of the devastation OF the
chest part of our territory; 40
they forget that we are still partly
paralyzed and that 1t will require
wears to recuperate our wasted man
mower and restore the former
lflourishing manufacturing centers
The war cost us 100000 indus
t,ial workers, 100000 of our build
ings were destroyed, regions were
ruined which in 1913 gave us "a
per cent of our wool. "a per cent oil
linen thread; "a per cent of our
minerals, SO per cent of our pig
iron, 20 per cent of our sugar and
SO per cent of our coal.
"The war wasted our railroads
to an unimaginable extent Thirty
per cent of our merchant fleet was
sunk and our wheat production was
diminished two-thirds involving a
deficit of 2.0O0,000.0O0 francs
These catastrophal changes were a
blow to the very base of the eco
romic and financial situation oil
! France"