Journal de Genève
- The Thoiry talks: reports of a far-reaching scheme
The opening of the Thoiry article distinguishes the statesmen’s silence on specifics from journalists’ accounts of the talks. It gives those interpretations a measure of confidence while still saying “if they are to be believed.” Only this opening is transcribed.
Upper-left Thoiry headline and opening paragraph only; the detailed proposals and later discussion are not translated.
Translation
The Thoiry talks: reports of a far-reaching scheme
The Thoiry talks
Although the statesmen present at the Thoiry meeting have refrained from making any precise statement, journalists interpreting their thinking have outlined the conversation in terms that are probably accurate. If they are to be believed, an undertaking on a very large scale is being discussed.
Context
A meeting after Locarno
Briand and Stresemann met at Thoiry on September 17, shortly after the Locarno guarantee entered into force. The treaty had established a framework for peace on Germany’s western borders. The ministers were now exploring whether improved relations could produce further changes in the unresolved arrangements left by the war.
Territory and finance in one negotiation
The issues discussed included evacuation of the Rhineland, the Saar coal mines and using German railway bonds to ease France’s financial crisis. These matters linked German desires to recover control with French concerns about security and money. That combination explains why the opening paragraph anticipates a scheme of unusual scale: concessions in one field might help secure an agreement in another.
Private talks and public expectations
The meeting excluded the press, leaving newspapers to interpret the ministers’ intentions. Private discussion could make exploratory bargaining easier, but governments still faced public expectations about what had been achieved. The paragraph catches that interval: a possible agreement had become an important political story before its participants supplied a precise public account.
Original
Les entretiens de Thoiry Bien que les hommes d’Etat présents à l’entrevue de Thoiry se soient abstenus de toute déclaration précise, les journalistes qui interprètent leur pensée ont résumé, dans des termes sans doute exacts, les grandes lignes de la conversation. Il serait question, si on les en croit, d’une opération de vaste envergure.
Les entretiens de Thoiry
Bien que les hommes d’Etat présents à l’entrevue de Thoiry se soient abstenus de toute déclaration précise, les journalistes qui interprètent leur pensée ont résumé, dans des termes sans doute exacts, les grandes lignes de la conversation. Il serait question, si on les en croit, d’une opération de vaste envergure.