L’Écho annamite
- Voluntary contributions for the franc — Voluntary contributions for Tonkin’s flood victims
- Franco-German rapprochement
- Disarmament
The lead criticizes depleted reserves while appealing to reciprocal duties between government and people. Nearby reports describe the Thoiry talks and League deliberations on disarmament proposals.
Image-checked selected first-page passages; partial reading, not the whole page or complete articles.
Translation
Voluntary contributions for the franc — Voluntary contributions for Tonkin’s flood victims
Voluntary contributions are all the fashion: voluntary contributions to restore the franc, voluntary contributions for Tonkin’s flood victims.
And our reserve funds, overflowing not long ago, are now desperately empty—so empty that, at the recent session of the Colonial Council, the government asked wealthy Cochinchina for a further bloodletting of eight million piastres.
[…]
In a word, reciprocity of rights and duties between the people and the government.
In all fairness, neither can exist without the other for either contracting party, since the government is bound to the people by a contract which, though tacit, is no less real.
Franco-German rapprochement
Geneva.—Mr Briand and Mr Stresemann held long and cordial talks at Thoiry. They sought ways of resolving, in the common interest and in the spirit of the agreements signed, all the problems concerning the two countries.
Disarmament
At its meeting on September 16, the Council instructed its committee to examine the French, Polish and Finnish proposals referred to it by the preparatory commission for the disarmament conference. France’s representative, Mr Paul-Boncour, outlined the circumstances in which the French proposal had been presented and explained that its purpose was to establish rules enabling the Council to apply the Covenant.
Context
What the government owed in return for contributions
The opening contrasts appeals to generosity with depleted public reserves and another demand on Cochinchina. Its concluding contract argument turns that fiscal complaint into a claim about government: people who are asked to accept duties must also possess rights, and rulers who ask for money owe duties in return. “Voluntary” giving is therefore being debated within a broader, unequal relationship between the governed and the colonial authorities.
Rapprochement built on signed agreements
The Thoiry dispatch emphasizes the spirit of agreements already signed. Locarno provides the immediate diplomatic background: its mutual-guarantee treaty had just entered into force and committed France and Germany to peaceful relations over their western frontier. The ministers were seeking to turn that framework into ways of handling the remaining issues between them. This explains the short notice’s emphasis on shared interests and a cordial exchange.
Disarmament depended on collective security
The League Covenant linked reduced armaments to national safety and the joint enforcement of international obligations. Its Council was charged with proposing reductions while considering each state’s circumstances. Paul-Boncour’s concern with rules for applying the Covenant therefore addressed a central problem of disarmament: governments needed to know how collective protection would work before relying less on their own armed forces.
Original
Contributions volontaires pour le franc — Contributions volontaires pour les inondés du Tonkin
Le vent est aux contributions volontaires : contributions volontaires pour le relèvement du franc, contributions volontaires pour les inondés du Tonkin.
Et nos caisses de réserves, pléthoriques il n’y a pas longtemps, sont désespérément vides, au point que le gouvernement, lors de la récente session du Conseil Colonial, demandait à la riche Cochinchine une saignée supplémentaire de huit millions de piastres.
[…]
En un mot, réciprocité de droits et de devoirs entre peuple et gouvernement.
Selon toute équité, les uns ne sauraient exister sans les autres chez chaque partie contractante, car le gouvernement est lié au peuple par un contrat, qui, pour être tacite, n’en est pas moins réel.
Le rapprochement franco-allemand
Genève. — MM. Briand et Stresemann se sont entretenus à Thoiry longuement et cordialement. Ils ont recherché les moyens propres à résoudre dans l’intérêt commun, et dans l’esprit des accords signés, tous les problèmes intéressant les deux pays.
Le désarmement
Dans sa séance du 16 Septembre dernier, le Conseil avait chargé son Comité d’examiner les propositions françaises, polonaise et finlandaise qui lui avaient été renvoyées par la commission préparatoire pour la conférence du désarmement, le représentant de la France, M. Paul Boncour, a fait l’historique des conditions dans lesquelles avait été représentée la proposition française et a expliqué qu’elle avait pour but de fixer les règles qui mettraient le Conseil en mesure d’appliquer le pacte.