New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-18

y
ego, he warned the nation
that the highest civic Office in the land
would cease to be figurehead position.
To-day Frances supplemented, q
o'clock-brcakfasting President--who has
just played a silent, but powerful, role
in the late lamented Allied Supreme
Council in Paris-is perhaps more
popular with both his civil and political
countrymen than ever before. And,
moreover, they are convinced that he is
not Presidential fgurehead.
To President Millerand is given the
credit for preventing political up
heaval which would have at least
: threatened the present French Euro
pean policy and possibly have caused
by now Frances isolation in Cont
mental politics.
Frances present European policy is
one of economic sterilization and re-
construction which carries along with it
tendency toward moderation for Ger
many under certain reservations. But
there is a school of thought here which
80 NohsAhs%SA IcIilSI AIlSClQc
BRAND, the political head of France,
should stop political jousting with Mr..
Lloyd George, of Downing Street, be-
fore the bar of what until recently APP
peared to be the highest Allied court
in Europe--the Supreme Council. The
underlying theory is that Mr.. Lloyd
George is the better jouster. The new
school of thought doubtless reckons
among its members the civil head of
the French government.
French public opinion and growing
anti-go government bloc in the Chamber
of Deputies still mistrust even a pol
icy of moderation where the late enemy
across the Rhine is concerned. To them
policy of u INSTRUMENTATION is not only
dangerous but unthinkable. But even
moderation policy has its foundation
on political entente between France
and England. Without the moral sup
port of England France is isolated to
policy of force. Public opinion knows
this, and so did Premier BRAND before
the session of the Supreme Council in
Paris.
Lloyd George consequently came to
the Paris Supreme Council with club
in his hand The weapon took the form
of greater Indifference toward a con-
tinued Franco British entente in Eur
ope than Lloyd George knew existed
in France. 1t menacingly demanded
a French policy of ultra moderation
toward Germany; the suppression of
French economic sanctions under which
she collects the German customs on the
thine; the discontinuance OF the inter-
Allied military commission in Germany
which supervises the Reichs disarma-
ment obligations, and, more important
than all, French concession to giving
the lions share of the highly important
industrial area of Upper Silesia to
Germany as against the claims of Po-
land, Frances ally.
week before the initial session of
the Supreme Council the French Coun-
Gil of Ministers--the Cabinet--assem-
bled at Rambouillet, the summer resi-
dence of President Millerand. Premier
BRAND outlined the menace of the
Lloyd Georgian club and the conse-
quences of French isolation if the po-
litical entente were broken between
England and France. With this in mind,
he envisaged French concessions in the
forthcoming interAllied supreme court.
But if Premier BRAND is head of the
French Cabinet, President Millerand
has proved to be no fgurehead. BRAND
left Rambouillet with the promise that
any important decision in the Supreme
Council would first be submitted to
the Cabinet
Milierand Decides to
Inspect Lloyd Georges Club
Millerand, backed by several minis
ters of state, visualized the political
storm that any wide concessions to
British demands would provoke in
France. Millerand decided to call Lloyd
Georges bluff and to have look at the
club, to see if it was real. The Supreme
Council assembled in Paris. When it
appeared that Lloyd George as the bet
Ter politician had gained the support
OF most of the Council delegates or his
Upper Silesian thesis and the British
stand was irrevocable, Premier BRAND
made good on his promise to consult the
Cabinet. To fail to concede the Brit
lsh viewpoint appeared to threaten an
open rupture of the Franco British no.
litical entente.
BRAND left the Cabinet session with
message for Lloyd George. The mes
sage in effect was: "Your thesis is
unacceptable to France. Go ahead and
90 your worst" All the French cards
were on the table, and if the informa
zion which comes from inner political
circles in Paris to-day is correct it
was Millerand who was playing the
hand. Lloyd Georges bluff had been
called. He was told to go ahead and
swing the club.
Veterans who watched the Versailles
conference through its various and hec-
tic stages in 1919 remember that it wa,
President Wilson who set the prrccde-.
OF signalling transportation to get up
steam and threatening To bolt Ii every
thing did not go his way.
Lloyd George, who had brought his
Upper Silesian thesis, his break-the-
entente club and his Gaelic determine