The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-02-20
The Preparations Conference


ttee was resolved months by the Ministers of the En-
tente Powers and Germany at Geneva.
In the months that elapsed since the decision in
question: have been lively diplomatic controversies and
press campaigns in regard to the Preparations problem and
with reference the role and appointment of the experts
most important events of late have been the publication
Parker Gbers report and Morgan entrance into the
Expert Committee.
The question as to the powers of the experts has been
vehementy argued out The French mperaists assumed
the standpoint that experts absolutely bound to OBJ
serve spuatons of the existing treaties with special
reference the Treaty of Versailles The German demand
again. insisted upon the members of the committee being
financial experts and economists who should examine the
sovency Germany from the expert standpoint without
reference the figures and spuatons contained IN the
Peace Treaty and the other agreements.
further question The representatives of the French
heavy industries demanded that the Allies should in
advance establish the payments to be required OF Germany
repetition therefore of the comedy of Versailles To this
both the Government and the United States objected
Finally the French Government desired the experts to
be appointed by the Preparations Commission. This is
symptomatc of the present tendency of French Imperialism
AS well known the American mperasts had with the aid
of the British succeeded in dervng the Reparations Com
mission which until 1924 important tool of French
Imperialism of it's decisive Importance Owing to the fact
that representative of the United States is attached to it,
it is difficult to attain unanimty in its resolutions And
without unanmity it is powerless
To such state of affairs the French big bourgeose
cannot become conced Therefore desires to be rid of its
tramme that the franc has been stabilized and that
interests we'll represented by the Poncare regime
All the seeing that the FrancoBrtish alliance af
fords liberty of action it did not know before Finally
and this the crucial point the heavymea industry desires
place the forefront of the negotiations German ob
cations that of 1000 million marks at which the
Preparations Commission originally established the German
Indebtedness The French mperasts of opinion that
the Dawes Conference did nothing to nvadae this figure
What results then have the French met with in their de-
the composition of the Expert Committee? In two
points the French claim appears to have been defeated In
the first place. the German experts to be placed the
same jurdcal level their colleagues from the other
tries and secondly the members of the committee have been
appointed by the respective governments This IS formally
undoubtedly the But IN reality the German experts are
faced by the compact Anglorench bloc while the Entente
have reserved to themselves the right of arranging
for a revival of the Preparations Commission
By the Intervention of the United States however the
situation has been materially changed The American i'm
perasts by satisfied at the action
of the French and British imperass all the less seeing
that their attitude is also directed against the United States
Therefore the American mperats who the creditors
of France and Great Britain intervening theoretically in
the matter of the reparatons settlements They desire to
that the final decision in the matter lies with them
The report of the reparatons agent Parker Gilbert has
begun to point entire question in another direction In
France true capitalists of the Foundry Committee
their press ackeys tried prove that Parker Gbers
report seconded their own demands Thus various
papers representing the heavy industries, such the
Aven the echo de Paris ubilanty pointed out that
it obvious that Germany in position to pay
$500 millions of reparations per annum But this was
wrong Interpretation of the Gilbert report which, while af
fordng excellent peet for increasing the offensive of
capital against the standardovng of the German
workers. internationally by directed towards sup
porting the creditors Indeed aims
ing their eyes the fact that their hope of being able to
place the Dawes Plan by other system of Preparations
payments excluding the control of American imperialism is
altogether vain.
By the appearance the of Morgan and his part
Lamont the domination of the Expert Committee by
Yankee Imperialism has become patent The house of Morgan
which placed the waroans of the United States to the En-
Powers the world market is about to dictate
its wishes which naturally coincide with its business in
terests to all debtor nations
The problem of reparations and debts dominates all
French politics present and has been the subject of the
parliamentary debates The French debarrangements
e. e. that between Caaux and Churchill in settlement of the
French indebtedness to Great Britain and that between Ber
anger and Mellon in settlement of the French Indebtedness
Amerca have not yet been ratified But their ratification
only question of weeks AS matter of fact 10000
million francs will already be due next spring Therefore it
absolute necessity for the bourgeois parties including
the socialists to general enlargement pro-
vdng for 81 yearly payments In this connection too there
difficulty Poncare continues to uphold the thesis of
intimate connection between the settlement of the debts and
the solution of the reparations question Coolidge and Hoo
yer declared their absolute opposition to this standpoint
The discussion regarding this difficulty has not yet been
cluded.
In view Of these differences among the mperasts the
of Germany have interest