Evening star., 1924-08-10
FiascO at London Averted
Through American Influence

nlent Such as mas Deen mace AT Lon =
don could cover willful default and
none should-that is. no agreement
should be made which would leave
the French hands tied in, case Of de-
liberate German evasion.
But four or five years of peace now
will be a blessing of incalculable
value to the world. In that time it
is not impossible that adjustment will
be made between French iron and
German coal. that in larger sense
from Complementary interests may
contribute to removing present Bit
terness. AS long as Germans and
French believe In the main sincerely
that the object of the other country is
to destroy either by military occupa;
ton or by a war of revenge, no real
adjustment is possible.
Must Eradicate Di.trust.
1t may be that it is' impossible ade-
quately to eradicate this mutual dis
trust and apprehension; II 1t is, the
Dawes plan will fail, but" at the least
1t offers the best and the only con-
ceivable plan. 1t embodies the sur
render of the unreasonable selfish
concerns of both France and Britain:
1t will have, also, to recognize meas
urably the Legitimate rights Of the
German, right to protection against
wanton attack If he accepts in good
faith. no matter how swift and far
reaching his recovery, right to pro-
lection against any attempt to de-
In point of fact, however. Ameri-
cans must recognize that the Dawes
plan and the London conference. II
it ends with the acQuiescence Of Ger
many, is only a step on the highway
m CT
must be other. conferences dealing
with the questions OF interallfed
debts, disarmament and military and
other guarantees. particularly for
these questions could be approached
with safety until the aIl-important
issue of reparations was adjusted. but
even with reparations out of the way,
the road to European reconstruction
would still be long and stony
Means New Confere.ees.
Success at London, then, means new
conferences, purely European discus
haps new. disarmament conference
in which the United States could par
ticipate. Failure at London would
have meant chaos, fatal postponement
of all reconstruction But failure
would. in my judgment. have been in
evitable IL American influence had not
been at hand to give substantial rec.
ognition to the, fundamental and le-
gitimate interest of France and Bel
gium on the one hand and Britain on
the other. And IL the. Dawes plan
ever works in practice, it VIII cer-
tainly owe as much to Americans Ii,
operation as 1t does already in origin.
Conceivably, August L, 1924, the
tenth anniversary of the outbreak Of
the World War, may yet be recalled
as the date on which Anglo-French
| acceptance of the compromises Of the
London conference marked the begin
| ming Of actual peace in Europe.
although pending German acceptance
all optimism may be. unwarranted,
the verdict of the French chamber
upon Herrfots commitments.
The Dawes report itself was estab-
| lished on expert economic authority
| that Germany could pay and pay
! largely fact asserted by the
Germans and in large measure by
the British. The latest London con-
ference in its Anglo French phase has
established the fact that, while Ger
| many is in good faith paying. she
should be protected against wanton
| .willfully she should be liable to coer-
cion-that is. that France may act,
even independently, to enforce Ger
man payment IL Germany defaults,
but that Germany shall be assured its
right to recover II she pays. That is
| remains Is to test the German pur-
pose. - =
Copyright. 1924. BY. the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.) ..4,