Evening star., 1924-11-16
HOLDS PREPARATION
BODY KILLED SELF
Death of the Commission
Created by Treaty Laid to
Red Tape by Tardieu.
by ANDRE TtRDII:I

Ey Eadi" p The star
PARIS. November ia few lines
in the newspapers. without comment.
announce ii not the death at least the
definite putting to sleep OF the Repa-
ratioHs Commission.
Certain bureaus have closed and
others reduced sharply in size
Princcly salaries. once paid in gold
marks. have melted in the Autumn
sun. and luxurious quarters III the
Astoria Hotel Will he vacated in a few
months
The Preparations Commission had 50
many enemies in Anglo Saxon coun-
tries that its quasi demise may b.
considered victory for the revision
lists. who intend 10 destroy. biz hy bit
what remains OF the treaty Of Yer
sailles. one might add that the com
missions itself has 4 large share of the
responsibility for the present misfor-
tune. Had NJ. Rarthou. now presi-
dent, taken charge earlier he might
have avoided this affliction. but he
came too late. and his vigorous quail
tiles could not save an institution
that had been wrecked by the mac
ton of his predecessors.
The Preparations Commission occu-
pies more than i third of the whole
text of the treaty of Versailles. vet
just idea. Loucheur. Montagu and
Lamont. who Graded it. We're asked
t" devise permanent organization
for collecting the German debt The
n@ure then talked about was 200 900, :
100000 ttwo hundred billion) gold
marks as minimum, and obviously
it would take time to collect it, Ir
order to place this question apart
from changing parliamentary situa-
tions and ephemeral ministries. the
keparations Commission was Great Ell.
Had Two Missions.
Originally it had two principal mis-
SIons. one. to fix the total of Ger
nany's debt and the other to collect
Germany's first payment of twenty
billion gold marks before May. 81
1921. Everybody at that time agreed
that Germany could pay this. But
the commission fulfilled neither of
these duties Very brilliantly
s It soon developed that the Repa-
rations Commission had too many
lawyers full Of legal 4uibbles. too
many statisticians buried under
tangled figures and too many red
tape worms trained in government
offices. Practical, get-ahead ability
was sineularly lacking. The year
1920 should have been devoted to
ways and means of collecting these
twenty billions. but. instead. it was
wasted in discussions about theory.
There was an argument over
whether Frances first mortgage on
the resources of the German Empire
and the several states applied TO
private property. The legal mind of
Raymond Poincare argued for five
months with Financier Bradbury
whether the "si1ver teapot" on the
Germany and when the 1st of May
in foreclosure. Bradbury said no:
Poincare said yes. Meanwhile they
forgot all about collecting from
Germany and when the first of May
came the reparationS commission
had to report the money unpaid
Report Rejected.
The commission also fixed the
amount of the debt on the same date
With the same i'll fortune. The gov
ernments Immediately held 4 confer
ence and rejected its report, but as
the commission alone under the
treaty had the power to fix the fig
Ure it was summoned to London
Like dog answering his masters
whistle. il went and signed a docu-
ment completely stultifying itself.
From that date the commission was
finished without really having got
started
GUN It's HeInDerS continued recelE-
ing royal salaries in gold and they
were reproached for thinking of moth
ing else. When the franc rose the
commissioners feared a reduction in
their salaries and SO they stabilized
exchange and fixed the rate. Later
they even asked advances from the
German treasury to insure their own
existence. To be just, it must be
added that this was not Frances
fault. 1t was England that insisted
on immense salaries which scandal
lied parliaments.
The commission returned to favor
soon afterward. thanks to NJ Barteu,
when the Ruhr was occupied, but iM.
Poincare diminished its prestige by
calling it only to decide special de-
falcationS, such as failure to deliver
certain coal shipments or telegraph
poles, instead of on general defalca-
tions. Hence the commission quickly
lost prestige across the channel and
its doom was sealed.
NJ. Poincare acquiesced in advance.
NJ. Herriot ratified the action. Thus
a body which might have been su-
premely useful dies an ignominious
death, and there is none so poor as
to mourn it's passing.
Copyright. 1924