Le Figaro
- The Dawes Plan and inter-Allied debts
- The misadventures of a tax
- Developing the colonies
Debt cancellation, opposition to a civic tax and colonial development sit beside one another. These selected passages preserve the paper’s attribution to Keynes and the political judgments of its own columnists.
Image-checked selected first-page passages; partial reading, not the whole page or complete articles.
Translation
The Dawes Plan and inter-Allied debts
The question of cancelling debts, whose full importance Le Figaro has demonstrated, was recently the subject of an article by Mr Keynes that deserves attention.
In Nation and Athenaeum, Mr Keynes sought to explain that, in his view, the very operation of the Dawes Plan must lead to the cancellation of debts.
The misadventures of a tax
There will be demands for evacuation of Morocco and Syria. It will be proclaimed that “the Chinese people must be supported in their struggle for liberation” (for, when necessary, the International is a sister to Xenophobia); “strike strategy” will be organized. Finally, propaganda against the civic tax will continue.
Developing the colonies
Is the indifference most of our compatriots show toward their colonial possessions coming to an end? Are we about to undertake that “development of the colonies” whose programme Mr Albert Sarraut so masterfully outlined six years ago, and whose urgent necessity our editor recently demonstrated in these very pages? It seems that both government circles and the public are beginning to realize the invaluable help, in our present difficult situation, that could come from those vast territories which an elite of Frenchmen conquered at the cost of their blood to give the motherland a reserve of strength and wealth.
Context
Why German reparations affected Allied debts
Germany’s reparations and the Allies’ wartime borrowing were different obligations, but money flowed between them. The Dawes arrangements eased Germany’s initial annual payments and brought foreign lending into its economy. France and Britain could then use German payments to service debts to the United States. That connection explains why Keynes’s argument about cancellation belonged in a discussion of the Dawes Plan: the issue was whether this chain of payments could provide a lasting settlement.
The political quarrel behind the tax column
The tax column gathers opposition to a civic tax, strike organization and demands for withdrawal from Morocco and Syria into one hostile portrait. Its joke about the International becoming xenophobia’s sister attacks a contradiction it sees between international solidarity and support for movements against foreign power. The tax dispute thus serves as an entry into a larger argument about labour action and French power overseas, rather than a narrow discussion of how a levy should be collected.
Colonial development as a claim on national resources
The colonial editorial presents overseas territories as a reserve that France ought to put to work in a time of difficulty. Its praise of conquest and reference to Sarraut’s programme are arguments for action: past sacrifices are made to justify present investment and attention. The crucial perspective is metropolitan. The proposed benefit is help for France, while the needs and consent of people living in those territories are absent from the selected passage. That imbalance is central to understanding what “development” means here.
Original
Le plan Dawes et les dettes interalliées
La question de l’annulation des dettes, dont le Figaro a montré toute l’importance, a fait récemment l’objet d’un article de M. Keynes, qui mérite d’être remarqué.
Dans Nation and Athenaeum, M. Keynes s’est attaché à faire comprendre que pour lui le jeu même du plan Dawes doit aboutir à l’annulation des dettes.
Les mésaventures d’une taxe
On réclamera l’évacuation du Maroc et de la Syrie. On proclamera que « le peuple chinois doit être soutenu dans sa lutte libératrice » (car, au besoin, l’Internationale est sœur de la Xénophobie); on organisera « la stratégie des grèves ». Enfin, on continuera la propagande contre la taxe civique.
La mise en valeur des colonies
L’indifférence que montrent la plupart de nos compatriotes à l’égard de leur domaine colonial va-t-elle prendre fin? Sommes-nous sur le point d’entreprendre cette « mise en valeur des colonies » dont M. Albert Sarraut, il y a six ans déjà, traçait magistralement le programme, et dont notre directeur montrait récemment, ici-même, l’urgente nécessité? Il semble qu’on commence à se rendre compte, dans les conseils du gouvernement comme dans le public, de l’aide inappréciable que pourraient nous apporter, dans la situation difficile où nous sommes, les immenses territoires qu’une élite de Français a conquis au prix de son sang pour donner à la patrie une réserve de force et de richesses.