Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-08-09
Tuesday, August 9, 1921.

throw France ovc". there WAS SOM"
reason i'm the plan for the immediat"
occupatfon Of the Ruhr valley. On the
| other hand. the British let it be known
! that they would not turn over the val
/ lev TO France for an indefinite period
to he exploited for French advantage.
out of this exchange Of views came
the announcement that Britain would
! support occupation if it appeared al
| ter fair warning. that Germany would
| not accept the rcparation terms de-
imandcd by the Allies. But il was al
so announced that no force should
march to the Ruhr until Allied com
missioncrs had formulated the plans
and limits of occupation. Wis tone
of moderation for which L.o, ii Geor%"
was responsible, rcassurCd the people
of the Allied nations, and it furnish
cd to the moderate leader of France a
pivot for raIlying public opinion.
4 week later. on April SOth, the
representatives OF the leading Allied
rONers-Britain. France. Belgium ana
Italy-met in London to consider re-
parations. The treaty provided that
Germany should accept by May lSt.
and she had not accepted. The Lon
don conference first declared that the
sum to he paid WAS $33.5OO.OOO, thus
accepting III" report Of the allied en-
pcrts. They then demanded that Ger
many accepted this award by May
18th. in dcfault of which the French
army of occupation would march.
The French extremists were in fav-
or of marching at once, claiming that
Germany had already defaulted. When
BRAND accepted the terms of the con-
ference they declared that he was
weak and that France should have n
premier who had enough force of
character to deal with the situation.
But BRAND was already rallyinG to
himself the conservative opinion Of
his country. and he was safe from
their attacks.
The next move on the board was
Gcrmany's. What would she do? The
hoped for division Of the Allies had
not matcrializcd. That filmy dream
that the United States would do some
thing for her had been Summarily de-
Htroycd by tho curt announcement of
Secretary Hughes. Without hope Of
help from world which. before 1911,
she had nouted with her militarism she
found il necessary 10 bow IN" head in
dcicat She had to accept the terms
lind It ministry whose promise TO carry
them out would be accepted.
When she had done these things in
good faith tho rrparation crisis WAS
past BRAND went home to Paris.
where he had to deal with the fevcI'isl
state of opinion tn! extremists had
worked mp. How skilrully he cooled
ii and restored the French mind to n
state Of sanity is now history. He
could not have done il had not the
spirit Of moderation and cooperation
still been in operation in the Council
of the allies.
The other inst"mc" or recent inter-
ference by Lloyd George in the inter
national situation to turn back the
policy OF the French extremists is the
curt stab he made at the Silcsian sit
uation only few days after the re-
parations controversy cleared up. TO
understand why il was made "" must
know the situation in Upper Silcsia.
The plobiscitc was taken in March ana
resulted in a large majority in favor
Of Germany. by the treaty of Yer
SailleS il was provided that after the
should lay out the boundaries Of he
province. due care being taken of the
vo;" by communeS and other factors.
II was clearly the turn Of the
council 10 proceed. But before it could
act the Polish element of the popula
tion Of Upper Silcsia took up arms
under Kurfanry. seized number Of
rich towns. and declared they would
never give them mp. Their example
was initiated 10y the Germans in the
province and the result was that soon
two strong armies OF irrcguars stood
facing each other, with the prospect
that whatever might be- the decision
Of the council. it would have 90 he en-
forced by an allied army.
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