Evening star., 1933-04-24
Welcome, M. Herriot!

To the Stocky and StalWarI son Oh
France, who has come to Washington to
pool his wisdom with that Of President
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mac
Donald in an effort to set topsy-
turvy world on its feet again, Washing
ton offers a cordial welcome. M.
Edouard Herriot typifies to the Ameri-
can imagination the best there Is tn
France and the French.
His sturdy patriotism, his enlightened
nationalism, his bonhomie, his sense of
political honor and international re-
sponsibility, are all traits which we
admire in him and in the old Gallo
stock from which he springs. Plus
the indestructible foundation Of good
will for France which Is embedded in
American hearts. her former premier's
career and personality assure him an
"atmosphere" in the United States
which should prosper whatever cause
he essays to defend.
M. Herriot in his first public words
at Washington laid rather notable
stress on the Lausanne Conference of
1892, in which he was a prominent
ngure, along with Mr.. Macdonald
Lausanne, from which resulted the
virtual obliteration Of German repara-
tions. With cancellation Of reparations,
Germanys creditors did not conceal their
hope-indeed, almost their expecta-
tion-that intergovernmental debts in
cident to the World War would also
disappear, in part, If not in whole.
M. Herriot indicates that he has ar
rived in America to listen. rather than
to advise or propose. But it would be
ludicrous to suppose that he will have
come and gone without any approach
to the war debt issue having been made.
For the moment, all that can be said
ON that score is that M. Herriot's own
record predisposes American opinion in
his favor, for it is agreeably remem-
bered here that he lost his premiership
in December because Of his insistence
that French honor required payment Of
the debt interest then due in Wash
ington.
That France is resentful Of the United
States temporary abandonment OF the
gold standard is an open secret. The
attitude Of the French Is comprehensi-
BILE. Our action leaves them, together
with the Dutch and the Swiss, in what
Is obviously considered anything but a
splendid isolation. But M. Herriot ut
tiers the simple truth when he says
that while the sudden gold develop
ments in America necessarily involve
certain technical notifications Of our
common problem, they leave the polit-
ical and moral issues untouched" The
Mayor of Lyon properly and tactfully
declines to be drawn into any discussion
Of 1.-The internal politics Of any country"
The situation which Is occupying
Messrs. Roosevelt, Macdonald and
Herriot, who will be joined today by
yet another welcome statesman ana
neighbor of America, Prime Minister
Bennett Of Canada. bristles with diff
culties and complexities. As the Prime
Minister Of Great Britain said on
Saturday-it cannot be settled by any
one nation alone. There must be team
work. There must be less economic
uationalism and more economic inter-
nationalism. The peoples of the earth
are oppressed by universal pail which
can only be lifted by common effort.
The conversations at Washington this
week, now auspiciously begun, are
destined at least to start our troubled
plane to spinning once again in the
right direction. If they fail in that
purpose the outlook will be dismal.
Such a result would be a damning in
dictment of world craftsmanship, COM
parable to its collapse in 1914.
It must not come to pass.