The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-23


 Germany. thus making German pro duction more costly and preventing Germany from prohting by the tenn porary advantage of exchange depre- citation.
 The prime minister of his gracious majesty in Genoa is like q boy want ing to make & seesaw from a swing ing beam but never getting the right balance because of a lot of clumsy boys climbing on the other end and swinging 1t violently. The plan for repeating the Washington conference of last winter in Europe this spring was his idea. Because he Is accused of having yielded Britain's naval su- premacy, as we'll as British rule over Ireland and Egypt. and because he Is. accused of granting autonomy to the dominions thus depriving the empire of It's leaves like an artichoke, and because he is accused of furthering bolshevist agitation throiBh Her course with the Russians. Lloyd George wanted to introduce a few well drilled bolshevists at Genoa and show his adversaries that his plan for export revival was a success. This revival We to end all unemployment, the victims of which are costing the state more than Is being paid in war pensions.
 Finding Partner An international conference. how ever. is not like a Charlie Chaplin sketch. played almost alone. or with dumb figures. The Welsh wizard was unable to find partner anything like his match at Genoa
 Lloyd George at Genoa has felt himself a world champion competing with beginners who could only as- sert themselves successfully in large numbers.
 Mir. Barthou of France. author of a book on Mirabeau. has had no ex- perience in international negotiations on a large scale. Yet he represents the only other great power which compares with England in Europe to- day
 Despite her treaties with Belgium and Poland and her good relations with the little entente France has different interests from the other conference members. She wants to recover as quickly as possible the eighty to ninety billion francs ad- vanced to her people on account of expected German reparations, the | need of which Is upsetting her bud get France. however, Is self-support- ing and needs few imports while her exports mainly are luxuries in which she has virtual monopoly With a small population she does not fear unemployment or other consequences forced by big German exports. Exports Stopped England, however, wants to see Germany's exports virtually stopped by high cost of production. It is quite evident now that the Genoa conference was held at this time because the Russian question could be postponed no longer. Lenin's cruelty frank confessions at the last communist congress are more im- portant than anything the learned Tchitcherin may say or do at Genoa. The Russian premier said: "Communist pride must not pre- vent us from realizing that we do not know how to govern. Some fea- lures of our administration are un- bearable. Every clerk of a large firm understands economies and trade better than men we have selected for appointment. The communists who fought bravely at the front. and risk ed their lives hundred times for the revolution together with the hungry peasants. will send us to the devil unless we soon begin to provide them with the necessities of life as well as the capitalists have done in the past" The extraordinary frankness fol- lowed this previous sentences:
 At Genoa we are not communists. but tradesmen. needing trade with other countries and trying to get the best bargains like all the others
 Did not this address give some ink ling of the Russo German agreement long before it was sprung upon the world?
 The bolshevists have been looking for a bargain. Apparently Germany was the first party willing to trade on anything like equal terms.