Debts and Disarray
551 DEBTS AND DISARRAY /TAHE sole and simple meaning of the French debt ¦*• settlement is that there has been no settlement at all. It is inconceivable that official optimism, as reported...
...It is inconceivable that official optimism, as reported very decorously from the White House, is more than idle bluff...
...What will be the fate of the French government ? M. Caillaux's power depends upon what is thought of him by several groups of Socialists...
...But there are mighty few people who feel altogether sure that it was sagely rejected...
...It will be interesting to follow the deliberations of the next Congress, quoted so insistently—but without apparent foundation—as resolutely opposed to any generous settlement...
...We do not presume to say that it would have been wise to accept M. Caillaux's offer...
...How he will emerge from the struggle, no one can say...
...Clemenceau was followed by Poincare, by Herriot, by Caillaux—not necessarily a climactic order...
...Obviously, however, the European implications of the debt disarray are much more serious...
...But the Socialist might is itself only a tentative thing...
...If it is paid, even on our own terms, a century must go by before the business of international banking can effect enough to relieve us of a very real onus of assessing and mortgaging...
...For what did M. Caillaux consent to do...
...But whether hardheadedness is going to make us any wealthier seems extremely doubtful...
...If the French debt never is liquidated, the loss will obviously be very serious and irritating...
...Since the close of the war, France has sought continuously for a strong central figure round which to rally...
...M. Caillaux failed to accomplish any of the improvisations for which he had been widely advertised, and the American commission sufficiently demonstrated the passing of sentiment from the conduct of this country's foreign affairs...
...We cannot wholly escape the bitter consequences of that great conflict which went on, merely because we took a share in it, and because we made unparalleled loans on doubtful security...
...Only two things seem clear...
...Simply to ask the government of France to pay interest upon its enormous obligations during the next five years...
...and his return will be celebrated with a glorious display of tangled and acerb rhetoric...
...There was no agreement about the amount finally to be paid, no promise to return even a single dollar of the principal, and no recognition of what may be termed "unwritten" obligations...
Vol. 2 • October 1925 • No. 23
