Evening star., 1926-06-11

transaction as the selling out of the
liberty of France to foreign bankers.
Again. the argument that q debt
settlement with America insures all
immediate restoration of the franc to
stable value has just broken down
in the case of Belgium. which despite
her debt settlement with us has juss
gone through a frame crash relatively
worse than the French. There is then
obvious reason for the French people
to doubt that an American settlement
would certainly bring an end to the
franc degringolade.
BRAND has got to find some way 10
get votes to pass the settlement. The
Left is VIGOROUSLY opposed to it, and
he has now broken with the Left
pretty completely. But the Right in
lending assistance the other day eX-
pressly warned him that the aid would
not go to the extent of supporting the
debt settlement Therefore unless he
can win a great majority of the Right
to the Mellon-Berenger agreement It
is doomed in advance. But even If he
can hope some time in the future to
get this aid, at the moment his own
fall would come almost automatically
if he attempted to force it through.
France is unanimously against any
settlement which involves payment of
the war debts save as that payment is
balanced by German reparations.
Even then the French view is that
the American and British debt pay
ments will in practice take all repara-
tionS due France and that there will
be left the huge burden of war costs
and reconstruction of the devastated
area. We are asking from France 90
per cent of our loans in principal and
| interest. But the French bondholderS
| have already seen the value of their
| loans to their government shrink
| from par to one-siXth. Why should
the foreign creditor get more?
/ never found Frenchman who be-
lieved France would or could perform
| under the CaillauX agreement, which
fell through. The later Berenger pact
demands more from France, and
| therefore the opposition must be
greater. The feeling that France can
| not carry the load and the people
| cannot be made to carry out such an
agreement is one of the main obsta-
! cleS to the ratification. Also the
| French feel that our bankers and our
public men know that the agreement
| is a mere pretenSe, that it never can
| be carried out and that it is being in
sisted upon simply TO provide tenn
| porary political advantage for the
| Coolidge administration.
r X X =
When / was in France in March /
was told point blank that no debt set
| tlement on terms such as the Gail
| lauX agreement could possibly pass
| the French Chamber. L was told that
! the French people would never con-
| sent to pay at a higher rate than had
| been asked of the Italians. 1 was told
| that even if by some political conbi-
nation the CaillauX agreement were
accepted-that is, the best offer made
| by Caillaux--it would never be carried
| out, because the French people would
| never consent to continue year after
| year making relatively enormous pay
ments to the United States.
| My recent advices from Paris are
that SO far from changing or dimin-
I ishing, the opposition to the debt set
=, tlement has grown and spread, and
that the present prospect is that IL
brought up the Mellon-Berenger agree
| ment would be rejected, and that NJ.
BRAND himself is so we'll aware Of
| the fact that he will not attempt to
press an issue on which his fall would
! be inevitable. Favorable terms for
! private loans or a new franc crisis
may change the situation, but on the
| other hand stands the fact that many
| French people regard the franc crisis
as made in America for the purpose
of compelling a debt settlement. a cir
cumstance which does not tend to
make opinion more friendly either to
the settlement or to US.
tcopyright. 1e2el