The Washington herald., 1922-09-20


total OF reparations would be not only
possible but likely, IL it were not for
a single circumstance. Lloyd George
has fixed determination to use Brit
ish control Of the French financial
situation. that Is to employ his power
Of cancellation to compel France to
meet British ideas OF disarmament
He is likely to attach TO any proposal
Of British cancellation of French in
debtedness certain conditions which
neither Poincare nor any other
Frenchman can for a long time to
come agree to. Here after all will be
the central point in. the next Anglo
French battle.
Dispatches from London and Paris
alike demonstrate that the French
public is at last awakening to the fact
that there must be a reduction of the
sum of reparations IL there is to-be
any payment. Always. however. an
antecedent condition to such reduc-
tion with French consent has been
the evidence OF good faith on the Ger
man side. The Lubersac-Stinles
agreement does actually suggest such
good faith: II II is lived up to IL will
do much to quiet French resentment
and suspicion.
FRANCE SNhi suspicious.
But whether the Lubersac-Stinnes
agreement Is carried out or not.
France will continue to suspect Ger
mary of planning revenge and until
that suspicion is vanished all effort I'm
London to reduce French armies
Will be without avail. Ultimately
each maneuvcr will be met with
the stock response that France
4
hard and fast treaty Of alliance
against any later German attack.
Lloyd George would like to use
the British financial concessions
as means to obtain political
end. but the French will not see
in the disarmament maneuver any
thing but the political They will
reduce their armies II they have
the military guarantee OF a Brit
fsh alliance ard not otherwise
They will reduce their claims
aga 'nst Germany. hut not otherwise.
If Britain agrees TO cancel France
may very well agree to reduction
beyond the total Of. the British
cancellation. hut not until the first
move has been made by the Brit
ish.
So far in the great duel between
Poincsre and Lloyd George all the
real advantage has lain with the
Frenchman. His course brought
TO nothing all the elaborate plans
Of Lloyd George for the Genoa con-
ference. HIS stand on reparationx
and allied debts led LLOYD George
Into the supreme miscalculation Of
the Balfour n"tc. which not only
wrecked the London conference
but alienated American opinion to
an extent which is now appreciated
in Britain.
British Prompted Proposal.
Cnquestionably the compromise
adopted by the reparations COM
mission and accepted by Poincare
represents British quite as much
rs Belgian effort. Not impossibly
the SHINES pr"pCsa: also repre-
sents in some measure British
prompting and Il is a gain. or. more
exactly. n fortunate escape for
George that the failure Of London
was not followed by a French mil
itary march across the Rhine. But
poStponcment docs not in the lesS:
remedy the situation. that relief
which is vital to British prosper-
ity must now he sought hv An
agreement with France and agree
mert is conditional upon Conces-
sions
George has. in word either 20
cat the words OF til, EaIfou- npte
or make somo theatrical demon
stration which will distract attor-
tion from what. will in reality
amount to mastication. In that
note he announced that Britain
would not cancel her claims against
her allies unless the United states
cancelled Its claims against Rri-
tain. But the United States has
said in response that il would not
cancel and all Of the allies have
indicated that they would not ray.
Moreover British comment now
shows that no sensible ENGLISH
man ever expected that the allies
would pay.
In reality the French situat;on
before the world has materially
improved because the French agree
ment to the Belgian proposal dem
onstrateS a spirit which mcasu-"-
ably rcfutes the ALLEGATION that
French policy was dictated by
sheer chauvinsm. while the French
approval Of the Luhersa -Stinues
agreement tends to lend suDnor; 10
the idea that France really does
desire to rebuild her own destroyed
cities and towns rather than TO
ravage or annex Germany.
The gravest peril in the path
way Of any adjustment roma ms
the ambition of Lloyd George him
self to achieve some shining solu-
tton, some pan European associa-