Evening star., 1936-11-22
BY PAUL CLAUDEL,
Former French Ambassador to the
United States.

night for six years in the
United States. Now that 1t has
been brought up again (by the speech
Of Premier Leon Blum at the Ameri-
can Club in Paris), we know that the
sore spot 1t has left with the French
people as well as with the Americans
has never ceased betraying itself in an
undercurrent of dissatisfaction.
I have no intention of bringing up
again the theoretical arguments of
the controversy. The Americans
claim that their loan was always inde-
pendent of the German debt, and that
its sum total is furthermore to be de-
Quoted in full from the loans made
after the war. The French assert
that they never thought they would
have to pay except by previous de-
duction on the German payments, and
it was the clumsy Intervention of
President Hoover in 1882 which cut
short the said payments.
There is something Of sincerity and
something Of bad faith in each one of
these two positions. The Americans
in particular have been very wrong
by persisting In their assertion that
the German insolvency did not affect
the possibilities and the obligations
of their European debtors. It is an
untenable contention and one which
they ought to renounce as soon as
possible.
France, on the other hand, like
England, stated solemnly and on sew
eral occasions that she was not re-
pudiating her debt. If it had been
possible to discuss its amount on the
basis Of practical possibilities and of
the actual facts of the situation. much
progress would have been made.
Remittance of Debt" Raised.
Some will ask why we shouldn't
peacefully let the shades of prescrip-
tion and of oblivion wrap themselves
around this affair. Why shouldn't
the French answer those protesting
lovers of the Bible with that sab
batical year" foreseen in Deuteron-
omy and with that remittance of
debts" which is one of the essential
parts of our daily prayer? Alas, we
are concerned with virtue which
France, like England, has herself often
had the opportunity of exercising,
more or less willingly.
believe, moreover, and M. Her
riot-with that sure instinct for the
national spirit which is his great vir-
tue-feels the way do, that an ef-
fort should be made not to leave q
gap wide open between two countries
| so near to each other because of SO
many traditions and interests, and
because of the whole democratic ideal
of dignity and human solidarity. 1t
| is vexing, 1t is painful, it is unbearable
for Frenchman to read amazement
and reproach in the eyes of his friends
| of Verdun.
When America in the last century
paid her money debt to France it took
her about 40 years to do it, and she
didn't pay back anything but the
capital. I have good reason to sup
pose that on this basis a settlement
wouldn't be impossible. 1t would be
even easier today with the American
dollar having been devaluated by 40
per cent and Supreme Court decision
having extended the benefit of this
depreciation to the whole body of
internal and foreign debts.
Even if it didn't appear possible to
envisage any mutual settlement right
now, there Is at least one part of the
debt which is absolutely undeniabIe
and which France ought to make ef-
forts to liquidate as soon as possible
I speak now of what Is called the
commercial debt.
We know that when the American
Army departed from French soil it
left behind an enormous amount of
provisions of all kinds, trucks, railroad
material, foodstuffs, clothes, all sorts
of manufactured articles. After much
discussion, Klotz and Morel, the
French representatives, themselves
sold or allowed others to sell the whole
lot at a price of 400 million dollars.
shall make no remarks about this
sum, which is considered exorbitant
on one hand and ridiculous on the
other. I am simply observing that
the French government has already
hquidated, for profit, the greater
part of the stock thus left behind,
under conditions probably ordinary,
but which doubtless made for profit
somewhere. Have the French right
to consider themselves exempt from
paying this debt, which really has
nothing in common with the rest Of
their pecuinary obligations?
Don't we see there, in all its cyni-
cism, a fraudulent operation? 1t is
true that for a certain number of
years before and after the Berenger
agreement, thanks moreover to the
private credit opened up by America
for Germany, France effected pay
ments, but this doesn't mean that she
has the right to deduct them from
this special sum.
Monetary Advantage Cited.
It is certain that in the present
state of national finances the notion
of adding new obligations to the bur-
den which is already crushing the
French taxpayer would present moth
ing particularly agreeable. But, on
the other hand, the French govern
ment and the French people should
give attention to the advantage OF
gesture Of justice and friendship TO-
ward their allies Of yesterday, and
perhaps of tomorrow: To the advan-
tage Of reopening the financial market
of America, which is overfiowing with
capital and is the. cheapest in the
whole world Zone borrows at per
cent on the Holland MARKET; to the
advantage Of cementing a wider and
more definitive understanding by q
simple negotiation.
There is an art of paying ones
debts.
Every one has read of the amazing
feats of DR.. Schacht, president of the
Reichsbank; of the dizzying proce-
dures of which this Cagliostro. Houdini
of finance, after having put volatil-
lied mark again on solid basis, sue
ceeded in building (with hardly any
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