Le Figaro
- A period of trials
- The Rhineland occupation
- Lieutenant Desmons reportedly sentenced to eighty days
Romier treats the improved trade balance as a temporary effect of depreciation rather than proof of lasting recovery. Mallet weighs occupation costs but urges firmness toward Germany, joining fiscal questions to national prestige. The Lotus article insists on exclusive French jurisdiction and interprets a reported sentence as humiliation; those are the newspaper’s arguments, while its account of provisional release remains conditional.
Translation
A period of trials
First, there is the more favorable state of our trade with other countries. For ten months, from August of last year to June of this year, apart from a slight exception in May, we apparently bought more abroad than we sold there, and each month the foreign-trade accounts left us with a substantial deficit. Since July the balance has turned in our favor again. August shows a surplus for us of more than 300 million.
We should welcome this result, but we must not be fooled by it. The normal, underlying pattern of a great country’s trade cannot suddenly take on a new shape except under the influence of an artificial or accidental cause.
That cause was the accelerating depreciation of the franc since last May. On the one hand, foreigners had a growing incentive to buy from us; on the other, our exporters saw the need to raise the prices of goods they sold abroad. The same cause may still affect September’s results. But it must disappear in precisely the measure that the franc is stabilized. In short, the franc’s rapid fall has enlarged the advantage enjoyed by exports: that is what the statistics express.
The Rhineland occupation
Nor can we neglect the financial side of the question. It is not recalled often enough that Dawes Plan payments must cover all the expenditure imposed on Germany by the treaty, particularly the costs of the army of occupation, which have reached 56,962,000 gold marks this year. Various cuts have been envisaged in the expenses of the Rhineland High Commission and the Control Commission. We must examine how far a reduction in occupation forces would increase the sums actually collected by the Treasury.
Any examination of the Rhineland question must also take account of another factor: morale. Our ministers would do well to take care. Our national sensitivities are raw at present, and rightly so. Too many facts show that Germany intends to impose a pax germanica on the European continent. Has it not, within a few months, offered financial support, notably through Mr. Schacht, to Belgium, Poland and perhaps even France? And beside these manifestations of European pan-Germanism, how many signs of inertia there are in our own policy! Mr. Mussolini has no fear of lecturing us from a balcony. The Ankara court dares, without valid cause, to sentence a French officer to eighty days in prison.
Truly, this would be a poor moment to yield again to Mr. Stresemann. On this occasion Mr. Briand must show firmness rather than flexibility.
Lieutenant Desmons reportedly sentenced to eighty days
A telegram from Constantinople reports that the Turkish court trying the Lotus collision case has sentenced Lieutenant Desmons to eighty days in prison.
A few days ago we set out here the reasons why a Turkish court could in no way claim jurisdiction in this affair, the collision having occurred outside territorial waters. Only a French court had the right to hear it.
As for the sentence itself, it runs contrary to all customary practice. In it, as in the pretrial imprisonment, we can see only a determined intention to humiliate a French citizen and, with him, France.
It is reported that Lieutenant Desmons has appealed and is to be provisionally released. We hope that the French government will not be satisfied with this purely formal concession.
Context
A weak franc could make exports look stronger
A fall in the franc could make French goods cheaper for buyers using foreign currencies, stimulating orders even without an improvement in production. That is the mechanism behind Romier’s caution about the new trade surplus. France was emerging from a political and monetary crisis, and Poincaré’s government was seeking stability through a restructuring of public debt. The article asks whether trade would remain strong once the currency stopped providing this temporary advantage.
Occupation had a cost as well as a purpose
The Dawes Plan of 1924 reorganized Germany’s reparations payments after the crisis over defaults and the Ruhr occupation. The Rhineland article considers a practical tension within that settlement: if occupation expenses were paid from the sums Germany supplied, keeping troops could reduce what reached the French Treasury. Mallet recognizes this financial reason for reductions but resists concessions on grounds of national security and prestige. The debate was about the price, as well as the political meaning, of maintaining leverage over Germany.
The Lotus collision became a dispute over sovereignty
In August 1926 the French Lotus collided on the high seas with the Turkish Boz-Kourt; eight Turkish nationals died. Turkey prosecuted the French watch officer, raising the question of which state could judge conduct outside its territory. France asserted exclusive jurisdiction, a position Le Figaro vigorously endorsed. In September 1927 the Permanent Court of International Justice held, on an evenly divided vote decided by its president, that Turkey had not violated international law by bringing the proceedings. The collision had become a test of the limits on a state’s jurisdiction.
Original
Période d'essais
C'est d'abord l'aspect plus favorable de
nos- échanges avec l'étranger. Pendant dix
mois, du mois d'août de l'année der-
nière au mois de juin. de l'année présente
(sauf une légère exception en mai),
nous avions acheté au dehors apparemment
plus que nous n'y vendions, et les comptes
du commerce extérieur laissaient, chaque
mois, à notre charge, un déficit sensible.
Depuis juillet la balance penche de nou-
veau en notre faveur. Le mois d'août pré-
sente, à notre profit, un excédent de plus
«de 300 millions.
̃ II faut se réjouir de ce résultat, mais il ne
faut pas en être dupe. Le rythme normal,
réel et profond des échanges d'un grand
pays ne peut prendre brusquement un as-
pect nouveau que sous l'influence d'une
cause artificielle ou accidentelle.
Cette cause, pe fut, depuis le mois de
mai dernier, la dépréciation accélérée du
filinc, qui fit, d'une part, que les étrangers
eurent un intérêt croissant à s'approvision-
ner chez nous et que, d'autre part, nos ex-
portateurs comprirènt la nécessité pour eux
de majorer le prix des marchandises qu'ils
vendaient au dehors. La même cause in-
fluera peut-être encore sur les résultats de
septembre. Mais elle doit disparaître dans
la mesure, précisément, où le franc sera
stabilisé. En somme la chute rapide du
franc a exagéré la prime à l'exportation
c'est ce que traduisent les statistiques.
L'OCCUPATION RHENANE
On ne saurait, non plus, négliger l'as-
pect financier de la question. On ne rap-
pelle pas assez que les versements du plan
Dawes doivent couvrir tous les débours
imposés à l'Allemagne par le traité, en
particulier les frais de l'armée d'occupa-
tion, qui ont atteint cette année 56.962.000
marks-or. Divers retranchements ont été
prévus en ce qui concerne les frais de la
haute commission des territoires rhénans
et de la commission de contrôle. Il con-
viendra, d'examiner dans quelle mesure la
réduction (lés effectifs d'occupation aug-
menterait les recouvrements effectivement
opérés par le Trésor.,
Tout examen de la question rhénane de-
vra enfin tenir compte d'un autre facteur
le facteur moral. Nos ministres feront bien
de prendre garde notre sensibilité na-
tionale, en ce moment, est à vif, et à juste
titre. Trop dé faits montrent que l'Allema-
gne entend faire régner sur le continent
européen la pax germanica. N'a-t-elle pas,
en quelques mois, proposé son appui fi-
nancier, notamment par l'entremise de M.
Schacht, à la Belgique, à la Pologne et,
peut-être, même à la France ? Et à côté
de ces manifestations du pangermanisme
européen, que de signes d'atonie dans no-
tre politique M. Mussolini ne craint pas
de nous faire la leçon du haut d'un bal-
con. Le tribunal d'Angora ose condamner,
sans motif valable, à quatre-vingts jours
de prison un officier français.
En vérité, le moment serait mal choisi
pour céder encore à M. Stresemann. M.
Briand doit, dans cette occasion, user de
fermeté plus que de souplesse.
Le lieutenant Desmons serait condamné à quatre-vingts jours de prison
On télégraphie de Constantinople que
le tribunal turc, jugeant l'affaire de l'abor-
dage du Lotus; a condamné le lieutenant
Desmons à quatre-vingts jours de prison.
Nous avons déjà précisé ici, il y a quel-
ques jours, les raisons pour, lesquelles un
tribunal turc ne pouvait en aucune ma-
nière se prétendre compétent dans cette
affaire, l'abordage ayant cu lieu en dehors
des eaux territoriales.. Seul un tribunal
français avait le droit d'en connaître.
Quant à la condamnation en elle-même,
elle est contraire à tous les usages et on
ne saurait y voir, comme dans l'empri-
sonnement préventif, que la volonté bien
arrêtée d'humilier un citoyen français et
avec lui la France.
On annonce que le lieutenant Desmons
a fait appel et serait laissé en liberté pro-
visoire. Nous aimons à espérer que le gou-
vernement français ne se contentera pas
de cette concession de pure forme.