Evening star., 1922-07-16
POLICY OF FRANCE
running EUROPE"
Re-EstabIishment of World
Trade Urgent, Declares
A. G. Gardiner.
NEEDS U. S. AND BRITAIN
Collapse Of German Money Seen as
Warning by Liberal
Editor,
BY A. G. GARDINER.

BY A. G. GARDINER.
Britain's Greatest Liberal Editor.
Special Gable Dispatch to The Star
LONDON. July 15.-The latest coll
lapse of the German mark has Gre
ated widespread alarm in English
financial trading and political Cir
cles, 1t is well recognized that the
mark is the barometer OF European
society. The ruble NAV be waste
Europe can recover. With the mark
waste paper the vertebra of the Eu-
ropcan financial system is broken.
This Waste-paper stage now is peril
Ously neal. Exchange has fallen TO
400 10 the sovereign and the mo-
mentum is increasing. The situation
IS passing beyond control. 1t might
lie redeemed il good will and sanity
prevailed, but with Poincare at the
helm France leads Europe in mad
dance to death.
The renewed downward movement
the failure of the bankers conference
in Paris. This conference was last
desperate expedient to keep European
systems in being. Poincare's speech
torpedoed it. This was most incredi-
BILE. because loan was the only
reparations. Does Franco want the
bankruptcy of Germany more than
her reparations? That is PLAIN
question. The mutually destructive
aims cannot be reconciled. She can
have one or the other. but she cannot
have both. 1t appears that the bank
ruptcy of Germany Is her first and
dominant motive. France calls heaven
and earth to witness that Germany
does not pay. But the French policy
aims to defeat every eXpedient that
would enable her to pay. So Europe
ruShes toward a Niagara.
World Trade Pnralyxed.
World trade now is paralyzed, with
the continent reacting to medieval
ism. Each country is living within
itself. Modern Europe will perish on
this basis. England is most imme-
diateiy vulnerable. She lives on
world trade. Half of her food is
grown abroad. World trade now is
diminished so per cent over 1914.
recovery of Germany is necessary for
the recovery of everybody. Economic
ruin cannot be localized. Corpses are
not healthy neighbors
The present insanity spells ruin for
France as well as the rest She is
the most self-contained nation of Eu-
rope. but she cannot live alone. Her
private wealth is great. but her
budget dt hcit is enormous. Instead
of taxation she balances the budget
by loans subscribed on the assump-
ton of enormous reparations from
Germany. But the policy of securing
reparations becomes more and more
remote and visionary. Meanwhile the
debt increases. More debt Is created
10 pay interest. Where will this in
sanity end? When the French peas
ant finds himself with his safe empty
will he continue to lend money to pay
interest on borrowings? He will dis
cover that the economic and financial
ruin OF Germany could not end with
the economic and financial ruin OF
England. He is beginning to make
the discovery. France is showing
of the collapse of the mark. The
present level of the franc is artificial.
Maintained on q fiction. when that
fiction no longer is tenable the franc
will follow the mark to perdition and
the present French policy will have
achieved q complete triumph.
No Change I'm France.
Unfortunately there is no prospect
of a change in France while the pres
mt chamber continues. I am assured
mat in the provinces public opinion is
more sensible, but the chamber and
the French press are unteachable. and
a new chamber will not be elected
for eighteen months. The present
chamber will not listen to reason and
policy would fall. The elimination
of Poincare. therefore. would be no
remedy. He represents the mind OF
chamber that would destroy any
premier who dared tell France the
truth In the circumstances England.
Italy and America will be compelled
more and more to pursue an tnde-
pendent line.
The root of the catastrophe lies in
America leaving Europe to stew in its
land Joined hands to impose peace
in Europe French policy would have
been overridden. History never will
forget the Anglo-American failure at
this crisis in the worlds affairs. If
worse yet 10 to be averted America and
England must act. 1t 10 impossible to
forego the French debt while tho
present disruptivs policy Is pursued,
as the American and English tax
payers are groaning under the heavy
burden. Is IT reasonable that the
French should be lightly taxed to
raise loans to pay interest on the
internal debt while interest on her
external debt remains unpaid? This
question cannot continue suppressed.
There would be an alternative in the
matter were France to adopt q policy
that would enable Europe to live.
We have made no claim, but 1t would
pay England to present q demand on
France to pay six hundred million
pounds sterling. to be permitted to set
her factories at work again.
Copyright. 1927