Evening star., 1925-05-15
French Cabinet Authorizes
Acknowledgements May Be
s1OO,OOO,OOO Yearly.
WASHINGTON is CERTAIN
TO BE SCENE OF PARLEY
Half of Dawes Annuities Believed
Likely to Be Applied to
Refunding of Loans.
sv the Associatnd Press

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, May 15.-Finance Minister
Caillaux and Foreign Minister BRAND
met today to study the interallied
debt question in an attempt to find an
acceptable solution.
Finance Minister CaillauX has eX-
pressed the view that the interallied
debt problem must be solved TO re
establish French credit. and he told
the finance commission of the Cham
ber of Deputies on his recent appear
ance before it that part of the Dawes
reparation plan receipts must be de
voted to this purpose Immediately,
even though France were hard pressed
for money.
NJ. BRAND as foreign minister is
known TO have been considering the
debt question as part of his foreign
policy and, although his views have
not been revealed. il was said recently
in authoritative quarters that the ne
gotiationS for settlement of the debts
to the United States would be re
sumed during the present month.
Washington Farley Center.
The American Government has
made it so clear that the negotiations.
when they take place, will be in the
hands of it's debt funding commission.
that it is felt the diplomatic exchanges
must be made in Washington. rather
than in Paris.
This decision of the cabinet was
given out officially after long dis
cuSSion of the problem this morning
and the delivery of opinions by both
NJ. CaiilauX and BRAND on what they
thought should be done.
The documents on the subject which
will be supplied to NJ. BRAND by the
ministry OF finance comprise an enor-
NOUS mass of material which. how
ever, has been analyZed and reduced
to an understandable form for the
convenience of the new finance min
lister and his colleagues. These docu-
men.s cover the whole history of the
debt and include exact figures on
various alternative plans-that Is,
what the annual payments would be
on almost any conceivable scaling of
the total.
Jusserand Papers Useful.
Probably the most important of
these papers are the memoranda
DiOuEGL
serand from Washington, giving the
results of his conversations with Sec
retary of the Treasury Mellon and Mr..
Hughes, then Secretary of State.
The substance of these is that the
funding commission would be willing
to consolidate with the war debt the
S4OO. 900 900 received for army stocks.
NJ Jusserand was told, it is said, that
if France would agree to amortize the
principal at one-half of l per cent
yearly the commission on its side
would be prepared to deal with the
interest III Il most liberal spirit.
France has been paying the Amer
lean Treasury $50 100000 annually as
per cent on the S400,000.0 900 since
the Army stocks were bought. BY
merging this with the principal of all
the debts, France would have released
the $50 100000 as part of the annual
amortization of the total and interest,
which would be at a lower rate than
3 per cent.
NJ. Caillaux has not said exactly
what proportion of the receipts under
the Dawes plan France is willing to
devote to the payment of her debts,
but it has been suggested that half
might be available. The Dawes plan
for the coming fiscal year calls for
the payment of 200, 600, 900 marks, of
which the French share is 50 per cent.
or about S15S,600 900.
May Pay 500, 200 Yearly.
AS the French debt to Great Britain
roughly equals the French debt to
America, it would be possible for
France to devote half of this S15S,-
100000, plus about S20,o00,o00 now
paid for Army stocks, toward Amer
n
about 100000 900 annually.
However, large proportion of the
Dawes payments is certain to be in
merchan ndise, and it remains to be seen
how much of these goods France can
sell, and at what prices.
This estimated sum of S100, 600, 900.
although insufficient to pay interest
and amortization on the French debt
at the rate Great Britain is paving
America on her debt, should never
theless be enough to make begin
ming toward a settlement of the debts
question, it is believed here.
Another point at issue is Frances
disposition to make her debt payments
dependent upon her receipts from
Germany.
Press Comments.
The Temps, commenting upon the
French cabinets decision to open ne
gotiations for the settlements of inter-
allied debts, says:
Ambassador Herrick, during the
course of the past few days, has con-
ferred successfully with Premier Pain
leve, Foreign Minister BRAND and
Finance Minister CaillauX, the con-
versations having been entirely un-
official, but they nevertheless dealt
exclusively with the conditions for a
preliminary meeting, during the course
of which official resumption of con-
tact between Paris and Washington
interallied debts would be
made.
Regarding this statement, Ambas-
sador Herrick confirmed his meetings
with NJ Painleve and NJ. BRAND, but
said he had seen M. CaillauX only once
since the finance minister took UP his
position, and that was upon the occa-
sion of returning the minister's cour-
tesy call.
PROPOSED RATE APPROVED.