Evening star., 1925-02-04
|NTERALL|ED DEBT
D|STURBS EUROPE
View Held That 9ermany's
Failure to Meet Obligations
Complicated Situation.
BY ANDRE TARDIEU.

BY Radio to The Star.
PARIS, February 4.-Interallied debts
which headlined last weeks bill
in Europe's vaudeville now have
yielded place to the problem of Sc
curity. However, this constant shift
ing of public attention does not
change the fact that the essential
question is always the same.
If the debt settlement has raised
difficulties, it is simply because Ger
many has not fulfilled her engage
ment to repay the victors the amount
of damages and pensions. Had Ger
many kept faith, the allies could
have repaid their debts with the
money they have been obliged TO
spend rebuilding their own ruins.
Similarly, there is a security prob
lem simply because Germany has
treated her military and juridical
obligations in the same way as she
has treated her financial obligations.
Instead of disarming, she arms. In
stead of Furnishing war criminals, she
hoists them on a pedestal as the best
representative of that spirit of re-
venge which is taught in German
schools.
Difficulties of Common Origin.
In other words, all difficulties be-
tween the allies have one common
origin-their common failure to make
Germany respect the treaties she
signed.
This has become so obvious that
Premier Herriot, in his latest speech,
uses the very language the writer
himself used months ago when he
blamed NJ Poincare for having failed
since 1922 to supervise Germanys dis
armament and for having treated
with contempt the return of the Ger
man crown prince. Certainly TINS
admission was painful to NJ. Herriot,
who would have preferred to be able
to assert that his conciliatory policy
had been reciprocated by Germany.
But too many facts and documents
proved the contrary, and So, as a man
of good faith, he had to draw the only
possible conclusion. His speech de-
serves careful consideration in Anglo
Saxon countries, for it expresses the
conviction of every party in Parliament
except the Communists,
Proofs which Premier Herriot ad-
vances have been set forth so often
in these dispatches that the writer
will not repeat them. Germany vio-
lates the treaty by enlisting more
troops than she is authorized, enrolls
university students for training, dis
guises an army of 10000 as a police
force, manufactures twenty times the
amount of munitions needed, re-es-
tablishes the general staff, which was
one of the greatest factors in the
outbreak of the war, and announces
her intention to create an army of
several million men.
All these facts are undeniable, and
are scarcely softened by the arrival to
power of Nationalist ministers whom
Chancellor Hans Luther chose as his
collaborators.
France has the right and duty to take
these facts into account. Here, at least,
there can be no elaborate economic
arguments such as We're used to justify
reducing Germany's reparations debt.
Here certainly it is not a question of
Germany's capacity-only a question of
will,
"Odd" Situation Revealed.
And isn't it curious thing that after
five years of mystification which pre-
ceded the Dawes committee report, after
all the world was told about Germany
being on the verge of catastrophe. isn't
it odd that as soon as Germany gets her
debt finally reduced to a minimum she
comes forward with a subsidy of 60O,-
100000 marks to Ruhr industries and
her budget still shows a surplus of
more than a billion marks?
Eminent specialists, who since
1920 have been dramatically lament
ing poor Germany's inability to pay,
will pardon the writer saying so, but
1t seems that, like the astronomer in
the fable, they have been so intent on
watching the stars that they have
fallen into the well dug for them by
practical jokers.
May we Frenchmen not fairly ash
the English and Americans to reflect
on these facts on which all French
men are agreed, no matter how they
may be divided on other questions? :?
Let them see Germany as she is, not
as they would like her to be. If
they will do this it will make much
easier the solution of many present
problems.
(Copyright 1897