Evening star., 1924-07-27
FRANCE MUST DROP
PAYMENT DEMANDS
Declared Resigned to Waive
German Reparations
for u. S. Aid.
BY WILLIAM BIRD.

! BY Radio to The Star.
| PARIS, July 26-It is the twilight
| of the treaty OF Versailles and the
| has made plain to Frances repre-
| sentatives in London this week that
| Americas price for financial aid in
| restoring war-shattered Europe is the
abandonment Of claims which. how
| ever justified legally under the Yer
sailles treaty, are held by financiers
! to constitute a menace to peace and
| therefore to Americas investment in
| the peace settlement.
Secretary Hughes has not put it 80
| crudely, but even in France his
| phrases are admitted to mean this
| when stripped of their polite veneer.
| And the interesting part is that
| France Is resigned to acceptance of
Americas conditions, 50 clearly does
| France realize that even at this price,
American aid is indispensable.
Hope To Salve France.
All that the London conference has
| to accomplish in the coming week is
! will save Frances feelings without
/ impairing the substance of what MT.
| Hughes. Prime Minister Macdonald
and American and British bankers re-
| gard as necessary safeguards against
another such adventure as the Ruhr
occupation. -
When this formula is found-it will
| be no easy matter. but 1t is not I'M
possible. Premier Herriot will return
| to Paris and lay it before the F,rench
parliament which. thoush unoouo,o :.,io -
edly disappointed, will have little
! choice but to ratify it. Edouard Her.
riot will have fulfilled the ungrateful
| mission Of administering the bitter
pill of defeat to Frances peiicX OF
| the last five years, and he will then
| make his exit from the stage Of world
/ politics
Tragic But Inevitable.
| That is how sober critics here view
| the situation. 1t is tragic for France
but inevitable. France VIII pc le1'
| with tremendous war debts both IN
ternal and external, ana ilttie pros
pect of German payments. for no mat
ter how well the Dawes plan may
work and how large the reparations
bank, it virtually will be Impossible
| to transfer large amounts across the
! frontier without again upsetting Ger
man exchange, which is precisely
what the bankers will not tolerate.
| One consoling compensation Is
seen, namely that the same natural
laws which prevent France from get.
ting payments from Germany will
also prevent the United States and
| England from getting war debt pay
ments from France. France has
| henceforth a ready answer to Anglo
mand debt payments. All she VIII
need to say is: please send the
| Dawes committee over to decide now
these payments can be transferred.
But even supposing foreign debts
are admitted to be uncollectable:
| wi fearful
/ internal debt to discharge as best
she may. A large part of war eX-
| penses as well as all reparations
| costs and most of the pension costs
during the last five years have been
| covered by internal loans at high in
| terest based on the expectation that
Germany would eventually pay.
Induxtrialists Are Optimistic.
On the optimistic side, there are
| many Frenchmen, chiefly among the
big industrial interests, who believe
the sooner the reparations question Is
will be for France as well as the rest
of Europe. Settlement of the inces-
SAINT wrangling between France and
Germany and between France and
| hopes of German payments, will
| enable all Europe, they hold. to get
| down to.work on the basis of present
| realities, instead of chimerical future
prospects Notably France and Ger
many will be enabled to Cooperate in
a manner they never have been able
to do before and the result, it is con-
| fidently expected, will be unprece-
dented prosperity for both.
The influence of mon who hold
these views will be a large factor in
securing a majority in the French
Parliament for the agreement which
| in all likelihood will be signed in Lon
| don before the end of next week.
| (CopypiIht 19S4)