The Republican., 1923-05-10
POINChRE FIRM
ON GERMAN POLICY
French Premier, in Speech at
Monument dwelling, Recalls
Days Of 1871.
INSISTS ON PREPARATIONS
Will Follow Bismarck's Standard-to
the Victor Belongs the SpoiIs.
10000, 100000 Marks Offer Is
Branded as Fabrication.

Tour Meuse, France.-Premier Poin- |
care, speaking before thousands of |
residents of the Meuse Department !
assembled in the town of Void at the |
unveiling of a monument to the war
dead, reiterated emphatically that
Frances essential conditions to a rap
proachement with Germany are now,
as always, Preparations and security"
The Premier, in a speech which was
remarkable because it contained only
few casual references to the Ruhr,
drew a parallel between the earnest
and successful efforts of the French
to pay indemnity and liberate their
territory after 1871, and Germany's
apathy, refusal and resistance in the
matter of paying after 1918. Replying
to the speech recently delivered in the
Reichstag by Baron Won Rosenberg,
NJ. Poincare said:
"Germany's Minister of Foreign At
fairs pretended that we entered the
Ruhr without sufficient cause and that
we rejected in January, 1922, an offer
of 3O,0O0,0OO,OOO marks made to the
Allies jointly. This offer was invented
for the occasion; it was never made,
and if the figure 3O,OOO,QOO,OOO is
named now it is doubtless an attempt
to please the German socialists, who
suggested it.
But let us admit for the sake of
argument that Baron Won Rosenberg
told the truth, what would follow? That
Germany, after formally admitting her
Indebtedness of 1872 100000 marks
in May, 1921, and after having obtained
in return for this admission the con-
cession that the Ruhr should not be
occupied, deigns in January, 1923, to
offer the Allies less than a quarter of
the sum promised by her and fixed by
the Reparations Commission and at
what price would she have us pay for
this strange concession? She asked
us for a moratorium of three or four
years, and consented to give neither
tangible security nor guarantee.
IlON NOulu we nave lClll III lIlf
promise of 1928, IS months after the
agreement of 1921 had been made and
violated? Cheated once, would we not
have been liable to be cheated again?
How could we be fools enough again
to give the Reich that confidence the
Allies so generously accorded in May,
1921, and which was so outrageously
abUsed?"
NJ Poincare took UP and continued
Baron Won Rosenberg's reference to
Bismarcks treatment of France in the
war of 1870, saying: 1T pleased Won
Rosenberg to warn US that Germany
did not accept the evacuation Of the
Ruhr by stages, as decided at Brussels
and Paris, and he dared to compare
what he termed our violence with the
moderation he attributed, without
irony, to Bismarck
This, added the Premier, gave only
another illustration of the kind of
truth with which Berlin has the habit
of writing history"
NJ. Poincare read from German docu-
ments of 1871 quoting Bismarck's con-
CeIu over Iue pOSSIDle IOIIlldIlOA VI 4
French Government unfavorable to the
execution of the treaty of Versailles of
that day, and Bismarcks decision in
such event to consider Germany au-
thorized to reinforce the German army
in France Immediately to protect our
rights" with the demand that France
pay such expenses.
He recited Bismarck's declaration
that if the treaty were jeopardized
Germany had the full right to make
warlike preparations, even though
they might result in a new war, Which
Bismarck warned France would be a
sterner one and wou.d end with a
more extensive and more severe occu-
patton of French territory. Then NJ
Poincare asked his audience:
'What would the Reich say if the
victors Of today spoke as did the vic
tors of 1872"