The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-04-08
PREMIER
DENOUNCE6
INVASION

Necessary, He Declares, n
whittier France? Whittier
Europe?"
TOSEPH CAILLAU1k, premier
of France before the war, in
~ his new book, Whittier
France? Whittier Europe?" which
is just published by Alfred A.
Knopf, proposes an immediate
rapprochement between France
and Germany and a general con-
solidation and funding Of the war
debts by all the nations who par
ticipated in it, as the solution to
Europe's economic and financial
difficulties, and the only method
of averting total paralysis and
revolution.
The great industrial magnates
Of France and Germany, he says,
should at once join forces with a
view to efficient rehabilitation of
the exhausted areas and enfeebled
industries in both countries. A
super-European state, not politi-
cal, but economic, existing con-
jointly with but superior to the
present political states, is also
proposed. Incidental to the forma-
ton Of this state would be the
lowering or abolition OF all GUS
toms and tariff barriers; the
creation of an international cur
rency or medium Of exchange,
and the redistribution of the
worlds war debt of 1900 billion
francs SO that the countries least
exhausted should bear the chief
burdens.
No suggestion is made by M.
Caillaux that Germany be in any
way absolved from responsibility
for the war or from it's obliga-
ton to pay. He would, however,
reduce the amount of indemnity
to the actual amount Of damage
suffered; have the payment made
in manufactured goods and labor
performed in full cooperation
with the creditor nations, and
place the chief tasks of collection
on the United States and Great
Britain.
Caillaux has long been regard
ed as the unofficial leader OF
the French Left or liberal party,
which was in power until few
months before the war. He is
credited with having been OPP
posed to the war and trying
to avert it, so far as France
was concerned. In 1919 he was
tried for alleged treason, was ac-
quilted but was convicted by the
French senate of communicated
with the enemy" and was SEN
fenced to ten years loss of politf-
cal rights and five years exile
from his native city of Paris.
Unable officially to assume the
leadership OF the Left, the pub
LEGATION of WHITTIER France?
Whittier Europe?" nevertheless
places him at the head of the
party and makes it extremely
likely that if the Ruhr occupa-
ton ends in 'fiasco, Caillaux
will be recalled to the premiership
despite his political disbarment.
Meanwhile he lives peaceably-
but by no means inactively-at
his ancient villa in Manners, where
he wrote WHITTIER France,
Whittier Europe?" and from
which he directs the activities
of the French radical wing.
Written with the preat power
of language and force of argu-
ment for which he is we'll known,
the book denounces the efforts
of the statesmen, particularly the
French government, who con-
cluded the treaty of Versailles
and have attempted the subse-
quent work Of reconstruction.
Their efforts, he says, are directly
in opposition to the laws of in
dustrial evolution, which point
towards cooperation among the
nations of Europe and of the
world, and the abolition of artificial
barriers which run athwart the
lines of modern economic develop
ment.
The French statesmen in charge
of reconstruction in particular,
necessity for working out a def
mite plan which would forego
narrow imperial detectives and
work for the general good of
Europe.
M. CaillauX also discusses the
Russian revolution, the failure of
communism in it's relations to
western Europe, the trend to-
ward agriCulturalism starting in
to the other countries owing to
the favoring of agrarian elements
by the various governments
(which he characterizes as mimi
cal to the best interests of Eu-
rope), the progress of science in