Evening star., 1923-05-07
EXPECT BIG BOOST
Of GERMAN OFFER
Reparations Tender Likely
to Reach s0,000,000,000
Marks, Diplomats Think.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Diplomatic observers in Washing
ton, American as we'll as foreign,
are confident that Ger1nany's repara-
ton offer of 10000. 900 gold marks
will speedily be followed by an offer
of 5o,000,00o,O00. Eventually they
expect the Germans to raise their
bid to s0.o0o,00O.00O marks. Insiders
know that the shoe Is pinching Ger
many beyond much further endur-
ance. The great industrialists who
pull the strings at Berlin are in
spring Chancellor Cuno's peace
maneuvers. AS their plight becomes
more unbearable Cuno will receive
orders to revise Germany's offers up
ward. Events once again are at a
point where decisive developments
are momentarily expected.
Purpose I'm View by France.
France is believed to be holding
out for approximately the 10000
100000 gold marks fixed bv the allies
in May. 1921. She is thought tn he
prepared to compromise on the basis
OF S0,000.OOO.0 900 in immediate or
ernl-lmmediate cash and the balance
on time. Meantime the Ruhr. with
us vast wealth Of mines and fac
tories Will be held as collateral and
evacuated piecemeal on the scale OF
so-and-so many millions Of marks
per square mile. with Bismarck's ex-
ample In France as a model.
Ihoughts Of permanent occupation
VI ti.e kuhr' despite growing an
neXatlonist school in Paris are firm
ly dlsaVowed by the Poi1icare GOV
crnment as they have been from the
outset me French recognize the
political folly of placing forcibly
under their yoke four million Ger
most skilled workmen, and their
prlnclpal fourteen Industrial cities
each with more than 100. 600 popu
lation. fP
duration OF Ruhr Occupation.
Inls is the seventeenth successive
week or the French grip on the Ruhr
IL mas brought France neither coal nor
cash In any appreciable quantities, II
therefore represents in direct results
a serious financial loss But neitber
iuel nor money was France main oh
1ective. What she was bent upon was
the gradual. but deadly, exercise Of
pressure upon Germany as a repara-
uohs defaulter. The French have pur-
sued the tactics of a giant wrestler
determined. however long drawn ont
the process might be, to force his an
tagonists two shoulders to the mat.
In the case Of the Ruhr the foe the
french had to overcome was the all
powerful German industrial barons-
the SHINES, krupp, Thyssen. Haniel.
Mannesmann and kirdorf groups
II was necessary not only to seize
and dominate the actual sources of
revenue or these "smokestack bar
ons,' as the Germans call them but
by Expressing them cause them 10
brlns Berlin to terms. The Cuno gov
ernment is nominally a liberaI-socfal-
ISL regime. but. in fact, utterly under
,e ,ne numb of the Rhenish- -Westpha- :
nan industrialists. France thus had
two tasks. She first had to tie up the
fsunr barons' property and then irk
them into compelling Berlin to sue for
peace on French terms. Poincare and
Desoutte between them believe vic
tory along those lines is within their
grasp.
Facts Impressed on "Autocrats.-
SHINES and his fellow autocrats
now have had more than four months
IN which to realize that the French
mean business" The Germans never
ceased to hope that Frances patience
would give out before their own or
ganlzed passive resistance crumbled
IL IS precisely the strategy that Hin
denburg thought would triumph over
Foch-that French breath would stop
before Germany's ceased. The soli-
darity Of French public opinion be-
Aiiio mas Deen q revelation G
the Germans. 1t has proved as potent
FACTOR in bringing Berlin and its
masters around as the Ruhr occupa-
tion itself
SHINES is undoubtedly the pivot OF
the German situation. When he says the
word there will be adequate yielding
he Is said now to dominate two-thirds
OF Germany, industrially and financially
. his own operations are viewed by the
French as disposing effectuaIly of the
German plea that reparations of the
magnitude France demands cannot be
paid. During the past few months
SHINES has been buying up, for fabulous
sums, great businesses of all kinds in
Vienna, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia ano
Holland and paying nothing in taxes.
Activities of SHINES Noted.
While enriching himself in a variet,
or ways. including cunning manipula.
tion OF German mark exchange, Slime.
has been roping in German public opin.
ion through his vast press He TODAY
controls no fewer than seyenty-one diff.
ferent newspapers. These represent but
, , 1.-THE of his power over popular
thought. BY acquiring the Hirsch tele.
graph news bureau, with which he has
amalgamated the Dammert publishing