New-York tribune., 1921-02-01
British Radical
'ress Attacks
Council IT e1i,ls
Paris Agreement a Is Held to
Aim TO Fortify Lloyd
George and BRAND for
Their Political Battles
Keynes Denounces Pla,,
Well known Liberal Eco
nonlic Advocate Calls III
a sSsibbering Nigllfmytess
From The rrsoune's European Bur,a,.


Gopyrlght, 1921, New York Tribune Inc,
LONDON, Jan. 31.-The .reparations
agreement of the Allied Supreme
council, according to the Radical Brit
ish press comment, is a political meas
ure drawn to strengthen Aremier
BRANDS position in the French Cha,,-
Der and accepted by Premier LLOYD
GeorgeA because he fears he will be
compelled shortly to hold general
election.
IT is held that the Council reached
an agreement, but notta settlement of
the European problem, and there is
every indication that Europe will he
more unsettled than ever The Liberal
Labor organs call the agreement crimi-
nal or the product of q madhouse.
Ihose who defend the agreement
admit that the period over which nav
ments are to extend is much too long.
but, they contended. 1--WE can let the
future take care Of itself" On this
point The Manchester Guardian says:
10 you think that FIVE, ten or fifteen
years hence the growing youth Of Ger
many will be equally docile? War in
ireland would be as inevitable as hu-
man perversity could make it. Alsace-
Lorraine kept Europe on tenterhooks
Tor forty years. An Alsace- Lorraine
extended to the whole size of modern
Germany would Danish all hope Of
peace"
Several papers have expressed salts
faction that Reginald McKenna, for
merly Chancellor Of the Excheuuer and
now head of England's greatest bank,
has been asked by the government to
N al
is to report on the whole question of
European finance and world commerce.
Ihe DAILY Herald, the organ of the
extremists, attacks the agreement fu-
rlously, but gets some satisfaction from
the situation as it believes it will
drive Germany into Bolshevism.
There remains the attitude of the
neutral states and America. At Geneva
1t was plainly evident that the ma
Jority OF the members favored the ad-
mission OF Germany to the League of
Nations, but under the terms Of the
agreement the League is used as q
club to compel payment of the annui-
ties. AS admission requires only ma
lority vote, Germany could join de-
spite the Entente's pehalty, but it Is
probable that the Allies would then
Withdrew, as France threatened to sdo
last year when it was intimated that
Germany would apply for admission
The Westminster Gazette says: "The
politicians would saddle Europe with
long drawn-out quarrel, which may
be fatal to the league or any rational
ordering of international affairs in the
Lifetime of most of US now living
j. nj. Keynes, the we'll known sup
porter of German economic claims,
writing at considerable length in The
Manchester Guardian, calls the annui-
ties impossible figures and says no
|. American economist ever raised the
figure above a billion dollars n year.
He writes: G
aLloyd George has only yielded to
Fgance things which cannot possibly
happen and succeeded so far in with
holding assent from things which could
happen. It is not yet clear what rela-
| ticns these new proposals bear to the
Greatly. Apparently they supersede it.
| They introduce an element for which
TIE treaty does not provide. They re-
Guire, therefore, acceptance by Ger
many of new treaty.
| ''Tt is not possible to compare ex-
actly the money burden placed on them
with that of the treaty. 1 estimate the
! last sum is somewhat less, o-thirds
| to three-quarters of the treaty de-
mands, il l may venture to gaess. But
| so long as they are very excessive the
precise degree to which they are ex-
cessive is not important. So long as
| our demands bear no relation to facts
their precise form is not significant
These proposals, therefore, bring us no
nearer settliRg Europe's problem. In
terested parties are no better placed
for calculating what Germany is really
/ going to pay so as to make their. plans
accordingly. The resstablishment of
normal economic life is put of for
4 enother period. The next act of the
play must wait until the end Of Feb
ruary, when there is to be conference
in London attended by the Germans.
Keynes concludes his analysis as fol-
lows: eve shall never escape from the
coils we have got into by any shift or
trick. Surely the truth will have to
come out some day. Surely there is no
method for sitdation like this save to
proclaim it sincerely. The thought of
i two prime ministers in Paris muddlins
over the silly formulas, with Loucheul
buzzing about between them-fermula.
which they all know to be silly-is for