The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-12-11

recompensc France FOR rcliuquishing
the claim and France can very easily
afford to face all tho consequences
Of an attempt to collect, The at
tempt may wreck Germany, IL may
promote disaster In Britain and
Italy. ~ viii inconvenience the
United states, couCcde all that, rull
French right and power remain uu-
shaken.
ono Way to Move France.
The problem is TO- move France.
to get rid of her prior claim, but
this can only be accomplished by
payment and so FAR no one has been
willing to pay France must WELD
has hccn the burden of British aud
OF much American song, ever since
the armisiiCc. Tho moral issue has
been invoked aud the French army
been assaiiod, not because Of the
mliitaristio circumstance hut be
cause while tho French army re-
mHina intact there IL absolutely no
way OF eliminating the French Nciu.
And the French army has survived
the Washington conference intact
II may not have received unquah
ficd endorsement. but certainly it
eacaicd emphatic disapprONal
II your ncighhor has something,
the possession uf which IA displcaS-
ing or oven dangerous for you, II iH
natural to seek to deprive him of
IT, lt is natural first OF all To ap-
peal to the sentiment of the COM
munity, 60 find that such possession
is an affront to the law, or failing
that at least 10 the moral sense OF
tho ncighburhood hut if neither
tho police. nor the bo rd of health,
nor the village Improvement society
can force him 60 give II up, II pos
session is legal then, in the end, the
question comes down 60 persuasion
| or bargain. This is the whole rep
arationa issue today
We have just about reached this
point In the roparauons question
| In Europe. IL is becoming clear or
/ ought to be becoming clear to tho
whole world that France will not
rosign her position to Obhgc, to ac-
/ comodatc, 10 moliify the world,
/ She can't be turned out Of II Ivy at
/ tacks upon her 'militarism' or her
morals And if she does not quit
| her position pretty soon, II, for cN-
ample, Instead " quitting she sets
/ out TO enforce the treaty by occu-
/ patton OF the Buhr, following a Ger
nan default In January, an cConom.
/ ic conference viii be an academic
exercise not "A practical perform
qnCe.
But are we prepared TO join IN
pcrsuading France to surrender
] lust claims? II we are then this
means In practice. going 10 the next
7 economic conference. announcing
/ that We will. tor certain returns In
/ policy, consent to cancel our Euro
poan debts, provided there Is gem
eral European cancellation, that "a
detail in such general cancellation
must be the reduction OF the Ger
man repRratiOus sums to that Who'll
/ ~ possible sum which would permit
| tho reconstruction OF French ruins,
such roconstruction to bc made pos
sible not by money payments but
/ by payments in kind, aH Louchour
and Rathonau planned. We can
also discuss land armAmcntB then,
Is the Time Ripe?
We can open another conference
with just as imprcs vc "A gesture ns
Mr. Hughes made the other day here
In Washington, when he proposed
the naval scrapping. because We
have claims TO scrap, Just AZ we had
ships. But does anyone imagine
that the country " ready for any
! such project on the other hand
II In nonsense, vicious nonsense to
argue that we can 20 TO Brussels and
persuade the French 10 surrender
rights because these rights are in
convenient or worse for the rest OF
the world We might just as well
/ have asked Britain and Japan To
scrap their ships, while we retained
ours.
The alternative, and the only al
| Tentative, is to treat rcparations as
| a European problem pure and sim
/ pie. which Il both Is and Is not.
| We may then = y 10 Europe, "set-
/ tie this matter between yourselves
and when you have settled a.. then
we will come and talk over with
you. measures to start the watch