Evening star., 1924-07-06
EUROPE SETTLES DOWN
TO COMMON SENSE ERA
Conference of Premiers Marks Sign
post on the High Road to
General Progress.
BY FRANK H. SIMONDs,


over thu ecsul;S Of the meeting
between Herriot and Ramsay Mac
Donald at Chequers, this conference
still remains the most hopeful inter-
national event in two years and a
half. Actually, it is now three years
since there was made at Chequers an
agreement between France and Brit
ain which was to have been the basis
OF reparationJ, and interallied debt
adjustments, end this agreement.
which was in process of expansion to
include guarantees for French Sc
curity, was one of the many things
which collapsed with the Genoa con-
ference failure
To suppose that meeting between
the two premiers, one just come to
office, should lead straight off to de-
finitive and dssisive results was to
expect the imfsfxsible and completely
to ignore the Sow, cautious and es-
sentially Scotch method of the Brit
ish premier. What was important
was that the meeting could and should
take place. Tlas fact alone marks
the end Of a phaAA which has endured
for more than three years, the period
OF Anglo French deadlock
Cause OF Deadlock.
The causes of tia deadlock are per-
haps many, yet IA the end they mar
row down to two-the fact that
France resolutely refused to have
further transactions with Lloyd
hn nd Of
Britain toward Poincare | do not
OF course, mean that either country
officially and opehly broke off rela-
tions, but despite this seeming con-
tinuation of discussions, the fact was
that France would not deal with
Lloyd George and Britain would not
deal with Poincare.
The amount ef passion which Lloyd
George excited in France was almost
bewildering = little more than two
years ago, when l was in Paris. Not
even the kaiser, in his moment of
highest execration, was more fire.
qusntly or more passionately abused
Two years later, visiting London, 1
found the British attitude toward
bitter
Moreover, there was between the
two men themselves personal feud
which found nTany expressions and
made cooperation absolutely impos
sible.
Naturally the first and most impor-
tant effect of this Anglo French dead
To
the Germans to resist all reparationS
payments. - Seeing London and Paris in
capable of combined action, incapable
of agreement upon policies or methods,
Berlin concluded that the moment was
propitious and began it's campaign to
escape reparations, which eliminated
not in escape, but in the Ruhr occupa-
tion.
Two years of Anglo French paralysis.
due to rival and opposed purposes, have
demonstrated that there can be no Euro
pean reconstruction, no real peace, save
as Britain and France can agree and
will work together. Neither country can
impose its will upon the other neither
country can find allies strong enough to
give it power to impose it's purposes
upon the other. The British dream of
American support against France, which
was very general just before the Ruhr
occupation, has gone glimmering. So
has the French conception OF con-
tinental combination which should DOM
mate by reason of its military resources
and common interests.
Meantime the German has discovered
that he cannot escape from payment of
reparations, of sums such as the Dawes
committee has described as possible,
save at the price of continued Ruhr oc-
cupation, of financial and economic pros
tration and at least the threat Of politi-
cal anarchy. Franco British disagree
ment may leave him in better position
to challenge France, but the challenge
once taken up, then there Is no British
help available to save Germany from the
consequences of her course.
-. Period OF Education.
One may. then, perhaps with justice
reckon the last three years, at least, and
possibly the last four. as the necessary
period of education for the people and
the politicians of the three great powers
directly concerned, France, Britain and
Germany; education as to the limits of
their possibilities in Independent isolated
action. In this period the separate
policy of each country has led to failure
to disaster. The German has not es-
capped the liability to pay, the French
man has not collected reparations and
the Briton has not seen Europe restored
to tranquility and to its normal capac-
ity to buy British goods
So the real Significance of the Herriot-
Macdonald conference at Chequers lies
in the fact that Britain and France now,
with Germany in the immediate back
ground, are going to begin again-and
in a certain sense, they are going to be-
gin at the beginning.
The single important differences is
that, thanks to the Dawes committee
report, they have something to begin
on that does not represent the ex-
elusive views of any one country.
More than that it does constitute
something positive. which all three
have ohicially.agreed to as basis
of discussion. - 49,. =
Manl1eStiy,- tnen, Wniles everything
remains to be done, the situation OF
July, 1926, is not that Of 1922, nor,
for that matter, Of July. 1919, when.
with the treaty of Versailles COM
pleted, the job of recognizing the
economic as well as the political life
of Europe began. In the examina-
tion Of the ways and means by which
hA M t. k1 Int
operation. moreover, France and Brit
ain. joined by Italy and Belgium,
will be assisted by the presence of