Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-26

Secretary Of State; Ogden Mills, Act
ing Secretary of the Treasury, and DR..
Fais, tire economic adviser Of the State
Department, went to call on the French
Ambassador to congratulate him for
the wise step France had decided to
take.
Mr.. Claudel, affable as ever, shook
hands effusively and ordered the butler
to bring a bottle of champagne to cell
citrate the happy event. The four men
raised their glasses and the French
Ambassador said, Lets drink to the
pause between a crisis and a catastro-
phe."
Since have not been witness to
this meeting, I cannot absolutely vouch
for the story. but it does. without doubt.
represent exactly what the French are
thinking about both plans of the
President. The intergovernmental holi-
day and the extension of the short
term credits to Germany are consid-
cred by the French and by many others
as mere palliatives. They will give sat
isfactory results If some more than or
dinarily clever men can find a solution
of the difficult Franco-German political
EfoDlem. 1t will be only postpone
Ir1ent of the catastrophe which might
plunge Germany and some of the other
Ellrocean states into chaos If Solu-
ticn Of the problem is not found within
O short time.
Question of the Hour.
AS things stand today, the intergov-
ernmental debt holiday has been rele-
gated to the second place. The burning
question in Europe at present is, Can
Germany pull through without a crisis
by a mere extension of the short-term
credits which she has received in the
course of the last few years." If she
can't. will the other nations help her
out by offering her some new credits?
The reports received during the last
48 hours seem to indicate that the Ger
man nation is disappointed at the result
of the London conference of the seven
representatives of the leading powers of
the world. The Germans seem to have
expected some more concrete results
than those obtained. The frame OF
mind of the Germans can be compared
with that of a much haraSsed chief OF
a family whose business has gone bad
The unruly family, hungry and deS-
perate. is told by him that he has been
invited by his creditors, to whom he
owed few thousand dollars, to come
and meet them. The object of the meet
ing is to put him on his feet again.
He goes to meet MS creditors, leaving
behind a hungry, but more cheerful,
family. When he returns, the family
phys him with questions:
well, what have you done?" How
much money have they given you?'
will mother have enough to buy food
tomorrow" The poor man, somewhat
embarrassed, replied: well. they have
troduced me TO all their rich friends.
they gave me wonderful party, and
they were really generous; they agreed
to extend the payment of the money
] owe them for another few months. v
But what about some more cash,
and how are we going to feed ourselves
this and next week? It's all very well
that you enjoyed yourself. but what
about US; are We not going to eat?"
The embarrassment Of father becomes
greater when he has to say:
We'll, I don't know; they told me
that they would like to give me some
more cash, but they really could not
afford it."
Bruening's Position.
This fairly represents Chancellor
Bruening's position when he returned
to Germany from London. The differ
ence Is that he has not to deal with
q small family. His people are, accord
ing to Berlin dispatches, dissatisfied
and are likely to prove extremely un-
Suly ana unpleasant.
Very few people, even among our own
officials in Washington, believe that the
extension of the old credits will prove
helpful to Germany. 1t Is generally ad-
nnitted that what Germany needs today
is a new, fairly substantial credit to
meet a difficult psychological situation
in the Reich. The theory of the extern
sion of credits would be all right under
normal circumstances. But the condi-
tons in Germany today are not normal;
the population is eXasperated, and the
credit and banking situation is suffer-
ing from the lack Of confidence within
the country and outside. The German
government may take the most stringent
measures to prevent the flight of capt.
tai. It Is q little late now, because
most of the money already has been
transferred abroad. The fact that Ger
many need not pay the Short-term cred
It's will help Germany only moderately,
because it is very doubtful whether she
could have paid them even If they had
not been extended.
What Germany Needs.
What that country needed was a
new supply of actual loans to enable
her to put her house in order. Yet
at the London conference the Ger
man representatives did not ask for
such loans and the other natio:-j did
not offer her any. All this seems
somewhat puzZling to those who have
followed the recent developments. The
situation appears to be as follows: p
The Germans before leaving Berlin
were apparently decided to ask for a
loan of $3.50, 100000. The French, in
Stimson and Arthur Henderson, the
British foreign secretary, told them
that they thought that the only possible
salvation fer Germany was to obtain
substantial loan. The matter was
discussed by all concerned in Paris
before the representatives of Great
Britain, the United States, France and
Germany left for London. All agreed
that a loan would solve the problem,
but the French insisted on having
guarantees. These guarantees were too
much for Germany and neither the
American nor the British delegates
could ask Germany to accept the
French demands. The French wanted,
not only a complete control OF the
German customs, but also certain po-
litical renuncistions, which the Ger
man prime minister could not agree TO
make. Had he accepted them he
might lust as well have remained in
France or in Britain his people would
NeTer have allowed him to core back
70 accept them would have meant to
reduce the German Republic to the
same status as Turkey had under the
regime of the Red Sultan" Abdul
Hamid. Every source of the German
income would have been controlled by
foreigners.
Since this was ruled out it was
decided that all the representa-
tives should go to London and
try this short credit extension
merely as q palliative. and then wait
for developments. Time Is great
healer and some people hope that in
this short respite Germany has OBJ
tanned something may happen To
strsiehten out the situation between
france and Germany; others hope that