The Washington herald., 1922-10-22

meantime violated the terms Of that
agreement which covered the mora
toriun- thsrs 10 no question Of the
right of France to take military
measures.
On the other hand Il 10 clear that
France IL less anxious now than
ever to have recourse to such
methods. On the contrary she will
50 to Brussels with . very sweep
Ing program for the reduction Of
tbs German separations figures,
She will advocate what the Ameri-
can experts At Paris and ever since
have steadily insisted upon-nams-
ly. the elimination Of that portion
Of the reparations claims which
grows out Of war pensions. She
Will similarly advocate the cancel
lation Of intsrallied debts and the
deduction Of the amount thus
gained from the total OF repara-
tions.
II the United States were will
Ing to consent to cancel its share
Of these debts then the total Of
German reparations would be re-
duced enormously. It would be
brought down to the point where
there would no longer be any
warrant anywhere for the argument
that Germany cannot pay, but even
with the United States standing
aloof. the reductions would be very
considerable. Ths Belgian and
italian shares would be eliminated
and the French reduced by upward
Of $4.oo0.ooo. 900. Allowing for PEN
sions which would be similarly
slimipated. the French claims would
hardly exceed $10,00o.ooo 900, while
the British would be under $1,000
000,0
| All Depends on British.
But In this scheme everything de-
pends upon the British course. You
have the very clear alternative.
sither British consent to join
France in renouncing pensions and
to join France similarly In the can
collation. of interallied debts, and
the British sacrifice would be very
much greater than the French or
the French will. in desperation and
against their wish. invads Germany
and take such profits as they can,
with the moral certainty that such
course will bring chaos to Ger
many and economic paralysis to al
most the whole continent of Eu-
rope.
| Yet hope of statesmanship-lik e
action by the British government
has bsen terribly shaken by the
Balfour note. This note was a
clear indication that the existing
cabinet did not dare to propose can
collation. of debts as between Brit
ID ~ xo1 -
therefore fell back upon an attempt
to shift this burden of blame from
British to American shoulders. II
this feeling continues. then II Is
plain that there will ,be no British
proposal which can meet French
| needs.
British action is, too. graveIy
compromised, in advance, by the
fact that there 10 every likelihood
of a general election before the end
of the year. which would mean that
the campaign would be In progress
during the Brussels conference and
that Lloyd George would be under
well-nigh irresistible temptation to
seek to make political capital at
home by apparent triumph abroad.
1t was his campaign pledges in
the election which just preceded the
Paris conference which were re-
sponsible for the worst of the mis-
takes made in the treaty Of YER
sailles, particularly in the fatal ex-
pansion of the reparations totals
to include war pensions. which must
now be cut out. Will he be able to
avoid the same blunder now?
But assume. and II Is a tremendous
assumption, that France and Britain
| can agree in the matter of repara-
tions and that II Is possible to bring
| the figure down to reasonable limits.
say somewhere between 10000
100000 and $4,000. .o00.0 900, then we
come to the second difficulty-what
agreement can there be between the
two countries as to the ways and
means to be adopted to make Ger
many pay the sum which will still
be assessed against her?
VIII He Use TroopsF
Will Lloyd George consent to join
with the French in coercive mill
tary operations provided the Ger
mans refuse to meet the conditions
Of this new revision OF the treaty OF
Versailles, a revision downwards,
| which will eliminate two-thrds of
the German inde ebtedness at a sin
gle stroke? Will he consent that
France shall act alone in the almost
! inevitable contingency that Ger