The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-16

vote columns to the German debt and the efforts to collect it. One could measure by the line the infrequent references to the French debt to the United States.
 France sincerely believes America will never collect the borrowed sums Polite American bankers and poll. ticians, holidaying in Paris and an. xious to please their French hosts have repeatedly assured the French business men that America intends to collect from Britain but not from France. "The British debt is busi. ness contract-the French, ah! that is a matter of sentiment" is an oft. repeated phrase.
 Waits for Germans to Pay
 But there is a better reason which convinces France that she will not repay America. Not until Germany has paid can we pay our allies" This you hear on every side, from Mon- sieur Poincare in the Chamber of Deputies to your hotel waiter. And from Monsieur Poincare to your hotel waiter, all the French are convinced that there isn't a ghost of chance of Germany paying in full the 132,- 900, 0,OOO,OOO gold marks Berlin has agreed to pay.
 Occasionally, of course, some one makes faux pas, as did Monsieur Loucheur, when he said what most Frenchmen think right out loud for all the world to hear. Former Min ister Loucheur proclaimed that the money was used in common cause, and that consequently from moral point of view there is no debt. The diplomats and tactful politicians hushed Monsieur Loucheur and tried to smooth it over.
 President Harding's speech to Con- gress February indicated to France that America hasn't relinquished all ideas of debt collection. France is convinced that America, under the present international conditions, will have some difficulty in collecting cash from Paris. France has been forced to accept coal, raw materials and finished products in part pay ment from Germany. The possibility that America may follow somewhat similar lines with France hasn't awakened a welcoming response.
 Fear U. s. Demand for Islands
 Apparently the fear is growing that America will ask France to cede the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in part payment. These islands, with good harbors, are now used as fish ing harbors, and, according to some unofficial reports which have reached Paris from Washington, they have also served as bootlegging bases. Their position off the coast of New foundland might conceivably make them valuable American naval bases.
 The reports that America intends to insist upon these islands being handed over to her were sufficiently serious to be one of the principal reasons for hard and tedious voy- age of Monsieur Albert Sarraut, Min ister of Colonies, to America and then to the islands, declares the Paris Midi. The Paris Midi, which appears immediately before the open ing of the Bourse, is much read in the Paris financial world.
 "It was during the peace confer ence that the idea of selling these islands to America first came up," declares the Paris Midi in an edi- torial Having bought Louisiana from Napoleon. the Americans--or at least some of them-proposed to de- mand that France give up all or part of her American possessions-Staint Pierre, Miquelon,, the Antilles and .Guyana-in payment of the debt tc America.
 "This seductive proposition even found a favorable echo in France Monsieur Charles Glide in a public lecture favored it. Furious official denials have not been able to dissi pate the impression that some day the deal might be concluded. Mon sieur Sarraut found this out for him self. When he arrived at Saint Pierre the inhabitants thought he had come to announce that France had sold the island"
 Cites U. s. Stand on Slavery
 Although as recently as 1919 the great Powers divided up islands among themselves without any re gard to the inha bitants' wishes, the Paris Midi finds that times have changed since the days of Napoleon. The tyranpIa oyer tha island of Won