Evening star., 1922-08-15

conference in London in long state
ment to the Havas Agency defines its
position at the breakup Of the, meet
Ing. affirms that the delegation
throughout, and declares that Ger
| many Is persevering in a policy raii
! culated to make Europe believe she
Is In state of bankruptcy.
Germany's plan Of action, said the
statement. explained the systematic G
depreciation of her currency. She
was certain to ruin her own credit
in the operation. but counted on the
allies being forced to favor an inter
national loan and thus restore her
credit. She hoped that the first credit
operation for her would be made pos.
slble without coercion or pledges anu
If the operation produced twenty bill
lion marks for repara tions she would
consider she had paid enough.
Her situation then would be better
than that of the victorious allies.
! since she would have only SINAI u
be in full activity. Thus she would
resume in Europe and the world. at
the expense OF the allies. the. eco
nomic hegemony wrested from her Dy
the four years Of war. The French
delegation wished to oppose an
equitable and rational program TO
TINS German scheme.
The statement reviews In detail the
proceedings of the London confer
ence. and declares the French dele
CATION was obliged to reject the last
proposal to grant Il brief moratorium
because France would be put in the
position of receiving requests Tor
payment from her creditors while to-
tally without resources against her
f4mer enemy debtors.
Under the circumstances. it adds
IN. Poincare refused to associate him
SELF with any decision of the confer
ence. even referring the problem to the
reparat1onS commission. and announced
That the French government would de-
iiberate on the situation and that in
any case 1t would reserve it's freedom
Of action.
at has been said lately that if France
resumed her freedom of action it would
be rupture, and a definite rupture. OF
the entente. but the French premier
made a point of declaring to the con-
ference that he refused to believe it.
and would do everything to prevent
such misfortune-everything except
, sacrihce the essential interests Of
France.
He added that none was more at
tached to the Franco British friendship,
recalling that throughout the thirty
five years Of his political career he had
always upheld and practiced that en-
tente. and ventured to believe that he
had personally contributed to tighten it.
rupture between England and
france. he asserted. would be a great
misfortune. but there would be some
thing greater than a momentary Of
nclal disagreement between the two
governments-the mutual disaffection of
the two peoples-if France felt that in
question vital to her. England did
not concede her freedom to defend her
rights. If France saw that it was in
tended to condemn her to policy of
successive concessions she would feel
deep sorrow and cruel disappointment
NJ. Poincare closed by rejecting all
these hypotheses and expressing the
conviction that. if an agreement can
not be reached on this question. in
which France in common justice
ought to have the preponderating
voice, since her claim represents
more than half the total. In any case
1t would be admitted it was only
natural she should seek to safeguard
her finances and save herself from
ruin"
A dispatch to the Havas Agency
from London says the allied minis
ters at their supplementary meeting.
called to consider the Austrian crisis,
decided to require Germany to make
her August payment of 100000 on
account of debts to allied nationals.
as Premier Poincare dema nded, and
agreed to exact guarantees. But in