Evening star., 1924-01-15
MOBILIZE GERMAN
! F|NANCES'- '-DAWES
Question Should Be Tackled
Before Budget, He
Declares.
Gy the Associated Press.

6y the Associated Press
eARlS, January 15. Brig. Gen.
Sharies q. Dawes, in his address before
the nrst expert committee on repara-
tlohs yesterday, said, In part:
The difficulties involved in the de-
termination OF the allied policy both
In time of war and in time of peace
are little realized by the average
citizen in all countries. To him It
seems strange that eventual common
. sense agreements. which in times Of
emergency characterize allied policy,
come about so slowly.
he does not realize the barriers
"hlch must be first beaten down.
erected by national pride and the
prloe ana selfish interest Of different
allied officials whose powers are af-
Iccted by an act of coercive interal-
led coordination. and by the inces-
SAINT misrepresentation and intoler-
aole intersections OF those foul and
CdlllOn-lOVlng VultureS-the nation
alistic demagogues of all countries
VINO would exploit their pitiful per-
sonaiities out of q common misfor-
Let me illustrate: Napoleon's
sixty-fourth maxim of war was that
nothlng In war is more important
tnan central command under one
Chlef. This great principle was real
.Ieu ana accepted at the beginning of
me war D" all the military author
;tles In the world. and yet, after near
~ four years OF warfare and the un-
necessary loss of tens of thousands
or lives and hundreds of millions in
material wealth. the German army.
junction of the British and French
armies and broke through because of
.ne lack of central command con-
rolling the proper disposition Of re-
serves.
Brlttsh Are Forced Back.
'rhe British army was forced
tAek u 'on its lines of communica-
tion toward the channel ports. The
srench army was forced back upon
sts line of communication toward
Paris. A gap was opened. Then It
yielded part of their sovereign pow
ar for the time being to the central
command under Foch. which paved
the way to the allied victory.
hat brought about the complete
allied cooperation in time of war?
emergency. And when the victory victory
came and the treaty of Versailles
was signed. what again have we
seen but those same natural forces
and immutable laws of human ma
turc which prevented the earlier
agreement upon central allied
TO prevent a common allied plan in
Time of peace?
What is the question Of today
Upon what does the success of this
committee depend-upom the powers
of persuasion? Primarily. no. Upon
honesty and ability" Primarily. no.
1t depends chiefly upon whether in
the public mind and conscience of
the allies and of the world there Is
an adequate conception Of the great
disaster which faces each ally and
Europe unless common sense is
crowned king.
Does Conception Exists
Does this conception exist? We
do not know, but we shall know. TO
this knowledge of whether this con-
ccption exists the results of our work
and the action of the reparation
commission thereon will perhaps be
the final contribution. AS an Aneri
can citizen invited to this place by.
speak neither for the government of
the United States nor for the Ameri-
can people, but as an individual /
can say that [ have read In shame
and humiliation the outpourings Of
the American nationalistic dema-
gogues who undertake to lecture
Europe in order to lift themselves
into some petty Office or to maintain
political popularity.
Want To BE Helpful.
we come only wanting to be help
full to you who, with your superior
knowledge and longer experience, Will
take the initiative In the search for a
common sense agreement We come
determined that nothing shall prevent
our full usefulness, ii we have any,
10 you In Il work which Is yours.
This is no time to mince words.
What today, at the inception of the
work of this committee. have We
found? In the first place we see an
impenetrable and colossal fog bank
of economic opinion based upon
premises of fact which have changed
40 rapidly as to make the bulk of
them worthless. even IL they were in
agreement. With all due respect to
the great ability of these experts
who wandered through this gloomy
labyrinch. they could not have failed
to come out in opposite directions.
They We're confronted with the ne
cesSity OF finding stable conclusions
where no conditions were stable.
IF In their computations. designed
to clarity the mind, they dealt with
the mark, the next week the mark
was something else: If they dealt
with the dollar, the pound, the French
, or Belgian franc or the Italian Ira
there was one value in exchange for
each and another in internal pur-
chasing power; IL they dealt with
gold there were values in pre-war
old and postwar gold to be con-