Evening star., 1922-05-22
GEORGE HIT
FOR GENOA F|ASC0
Andre Tardieu Says Not One
Useful Result Came From
Sessions.
BY ANDRE TARDIEU,
Former French High Commissioner to
the United States.

By Cable to The Star.
PARIS, May 20.-One supreme
conclusion evolves from the finish of
the Genoa conference, namely, that
all OF the European powers. with
their hundreds of delegates and eX-
perts. conferred from April 10 to-
May 19 without bringing about a sin
gle usfeul result. Impartial judges
will agree that this is so.
There is room for reflection in this.
There was to be great concerted
effort toward economic reconstruc-
ton. 1t completely failed. What can
one say except that the method was
wrong? If success now is desired then
other methods must be found.
Lloyd George conceived the Genoa
plan at the end of 1921 along the lines
scornfully fiouted in 1919. but has
since adopted. He offered this plan
as an economic one. although it was
essentially political. He took for
treaty was a prerequisite to eco
nomic reconstruction. Starting from
this hypothesis Lloyd George has
struggled six weeks. with failure as
the result. How can this surprise
you when you reflect that there half
ern Europe created by war and the
peace treaties which never will agree
to take any such step?
Destructive Work Fatal.
Thus we may conclude that If we
desire to do any constructive work
economically 1t will be better not to
begin with destructive work. Keynes
and Lloyd Georges thesis was that
for economic reasons it was necessary
to modify Europe's political charter.
especially SO far as 1t concerns east
ern frontiers. The result bellies this.
The soviets will not renounce COM
munism nor propaganda; the Eu-
ropean states refuse to allow their
frontiers to be brought into the dis
cussion. Through failure to recog-
nize these plain facts all hatreds have
been sharpened rather than appeased.
Isn't it time now to try the contrary
system, recognizing that the war-born
frontiers are the expression of ma
tionalist ambitions, and to start with
this fact when working for eco
nomic reconstruction?
With the problem thus clarified we
can see that the Anglo -Saxons have a
large share of responsibility for the
economic disorder for which they
blame the treaties: If. when the
armi stice came. the English and
break the economic ties entered into
during the war. Europe would not
suffer so bitterly today. Ruined Eu-
rope is told to unite and sacrifice in
dividual interest to the common well
fare. When, early in 1919, the United
States and England forced dissolu-
ton Of the interallied economic or
ganism, refusing aid toward avoiding
or limiting the exchange crisis; when
the English mines. because Of high
export prices. lost their foreign mar
kets; when Anglo-saxon countries.
creditors of the whole world, under
took to oblige debtors to pay with
out taking into consideration unpaid
sums owed these countries by others.
it hardly can be said that London
and Washington were inspired by
desire for solidarity and reconstruc-
ton.
Plan without Backing.
In short, accepting not only as a
right. but as fa~ Europe'S pres
ent political status, efforts should be
made toward consolidating it instead
Of constantly weakening 1t by propa-