Evening star., 1924-07-06

France and Britain were governed by
parliaments which were dominated by
wartime emotions. This was not only
inevitable, but hardly surprising. in
view of the agony of both countries
the long agony of four years of con-
f1ict and suffering. Yet, given the
temper of the countries. given the
temper of the parliaments themselves.
it was never possible to deal with
problems of finance or of industry
without immense and fatal conces-
sions to national emotions and still
undiminished wartime passions.
Now It's Rock-Bottom Reality.
But this five years of cooling off,
imperceptible as the cooling -off proc
ess has been during most of the time,
has ended by eliminating the men
and discrediting many of the meas
ures of the period. Fantastic repara-
tions totals, such as $4,000. 900, 600
of the first period have shrunk from
astronomical to terrestrial proportions.
High hopes have come down to some
thing like rock k-bottom reality, No
body will get what they hoped for.
but the need of everybody for a set
tlement is perhaps the dominating
factor in the whole situa ton.
France has hoped for an alliance
with Great Britain. an alliance which
would give her security against any
new German attack. But most
Frenchmen know now that there
will be no British guarantee save as
this agreement is made through the
hoped for an Anglo American inter-
vention to restrain France and thus
to insure German escape. She should
know now that although Britain may
oppose and America question the
wisdom of French occupation of the
Ruhr./ neither can nor will physically
intervene.
Britain wants trade: Germany wants
loans and the use of her Ruhr work
shop untrammeled by French and
Belgian armies; France wants repa-
rations and some form of security.
None can realize his aims unless all
three can find basis of agreement,
or at least a basis of discussion. The
greatest difference between the pres
ant and the past situations lies in the
iact that all three have come, or are
rapidly coming, to perceive that the
lone hand can win nothing. Just as
long as Germany, Britain or France
.lieved that it could achieve it's
ends without regard to the others, or
realize enough of them to make the
single-handed performance profitable.
there was no real hope of actual
settlement.
Must Face Old Questions.
When the premiers meet in London
a few days hence they will have to
face all the old questions. Security
and reparations for France remain
vital. Allied debts are just as press
ing: and yet, where Poincare and
Lloyd George could not work to-
gether, where Britain refused to deal
with Poincare and France with Lloyd
George. Herriot and Ramsay Mac
Donald can now confer. because they
are not mutually antagonistic, and
they both come from parties in their
own countries which recognize the
need of getting the war over and of
making peace in the language and
manner of business. not of conflict.
How, then, is the new situation to
develop? For the moment two things
are plain. Britain and France stand
united on the matter of German OBJ
servance of the disarmament clauses
0f
decisions have been notified to Ger
many. French security. for the mo-
ment, then is to be looked after; Ger
many must comply with the decision
of her conquerors, and Germany will
In the second place, the July con-
ference will confine itself to the
single matter of getting the Dawes
report into operation. All the tangled
problems of interallied debts. ulti-'
mate French security and the like will
go over, none being pressing. since
German disarmament is attended to
for the moment and no one is hound
ing either France or Italy, much less
Belgium. for the payment of interest
or principal of the debts.
But assuming that the July. con-
ference of London gets the Dawes
report in hand and is able. by other
discussions-thist time with Germany
to get it into operation, then, first
off, the matter of the occupation of
the Ruhr comes up. Germany is to
be promised two rewards for the ac-
ceptance of the Dawes report in
practice, not merely in principle; she
London and New York, that Is di-
rectIy If not exactly officially by
Britain and America-and she is to
get the evacuation of the Ruhr by
France.
Program at Geneva.
But the problem of the Ruhr
throws US at once into the area of
armaments; also, looking at the cal
Endar, 1T is fair to guess that appli-
cation of the Ruhr arrangements,
that is, the acceptance of the Dawes
report by German-may be achieved
about the time that Herriot and Mac
Donald set out for Geneva. At
Geneva the program obviously is.
first, the admission of Germany into
the league of nations. and, second,
some very wide expansion of the
league activity in the matter of
ornaments. Can some formula be
worked out by which. within the
leagues view, a collective guarantee
can be provided for all nations
against any wanton attack? Can
such a guarantee be directly under-
written by one or more great
powers? At least an attempt will be
made.
The MacDonald-Herrio program as
sumes that Germany will, for various