Le Figaro
- For the local newspaper
- The great injustice
- Stresemann returns the courtesy
The local-press editorial fears that respectable newspapers deprived of secure support will disappear or become dependent on political and private interests. Homberg’s debt argument makes currency stabilization a prerequisite for repayment agreements, warning of an escalating foreign-exchange burden. The diplomatic column describes cabinet approval for continued Franco-German talks but explicitly says Thoiry created no commitment. These selections connect financial independence at the level of a local paper, the franc and international bargaining, while preserving their authors’ warnings as arguments rather than settled outcomes.
Translation
For the local newspaper
The alternative is hardly reassuring. A definite, stable and in some sense autonomous readership needs local newspapers. Today it is served by papers with a history, a tradition and a good name. Are you resigned to letting them die? The paper will die, but local curiosity will not. I fear that once the respectable paper you sacrificed is dead, some less self-respecting sheet will arise. If the paper survives, how will it escape the excessive domination of political passions or the now tyrannical pressure of particular interests?
The great injustice
For my part, I have never ceased saying that ratifying any agreement with our creditors before stabilizing our currency, or creating a new currency of fixed value convertible into gold, would be the most dangerous error of method. Beginning payments that increase so rapidly with an unstable currency would finally kill our franc and ruin its purchasing power. Our purchases of foreign exchange would become increasingly expensive; our debt itself would thus grow indefinitely, while our whole national economy would be increasingly harmed.
Stresemann returns the courtesy
Stresemann yesterday returned Briand’s courtesy. The Reich cabinet unanimously approved continuing Franco-German talks, as the French cabinet had done on Tuesday. The German communiqué confirms one point in Briand’s statements: no commitment was made at Thoiry; the decision rests with the governments. But it adds details about the talks’ nature and progress. This is indeed a bargain: we would evacuate the Rhineland and transfer the Saar mines; in return, the Reich would market the Dawes Plan railway bonds and give us the proceeds early as reparations. Experts are to discuss the amount and terms of these payments in Berlin beginning in October.
Context
Why a town still needs its paper
The argument separates the survival of a particular business from the continuing demand for local news. Closing an established paper leaves its readers and their interests in place, creating an opening for a replacement with different standards.
Financial survival and editorial independence
Keeping a newspaper alive does not by itself protect its independence. The article identifies political passions and particular interests as pressures that can shape what a financially vulnerable paper publishes.
War debts crossed national borders
France owed wartime debts to foreign creditors while expecting reparations from Germany. The Dawes framework linked German payments to international lending, making French debt policy part of a wider financial system.
Why the order of repayment matters
A foreign payment requires buying foreign currency. If the franc weakens before that purchase, the same foreign obligation costs more francs. This is the mechanism behind the writer’s demand to stabilize the currency before accepting rapidly rising payments.
Turning future reparations into present funds
The proposed sale of railway bonds would bring forward money otherwise received over time. France’s immediate financial interest was paired with German demands concerning the Rhineland and Saar, connecting cash flow to territorial and security questions.
From a leaders’ meeting to a workable agreement
The cabinet decisions authorized continued talks; the proposed exchange still required amounts, terms and government decisions. The planned experts’ meeting in Berlin was where a political bargain had to become a financial arrangement that could actually be carried out.
Original
Pour le journal local
L'alternative n'est pas très rassurante.
Un public certain, stable et en quelque
manière autonome exige des journaux lo-
caux. Ce public est servi aujourd'hui par
des feuilles qui ont un passé, une tradition,
une honorabilité. Vous vous résignez à les
laisser mourir ? Le journal mourra, mais
non la curiosité locale., Je crains qu'une fois
mort le journal respectable que vous avez
sacrifié, ne naisse une feuille quelconque
qui se respectera moins. A supposer que le
journal survive, comment échapperâ-t-il dé-
sormâis à la domination trop exigeante des
passions politiques ou à la pression deve-
nue tyranniqùe de tels intérêts particu-
liers ? ?'
LA GRANDE INJUSTICE
Pour ma part, je n'ai cessé de dire que
ratifier un accord quelconque avec no§
créanciers avant d'avoir procédé à.la sta-'
bilisation de notre monnaie pu à la créa-
tion d'une nouvelle monnaie fixe en valeur
et convertible en or, c'était commettre la
plus dangereuse erreur de méthode.
Commencer des versements si rapide-
ment croissants avec s une monnaie insta- ,i
̃ble, serait assassiner définitivement notçp:
franc, ruiner son pouvoir d'achat. Nos
achats de change serajent,de plus en plus
onéreux; ,notre dette même se trouverait
ainsi indéfiniment augmentée ,en même
temps que toute notre économie nationale
serait de pius en plus atteinte. -a
La politesse de Stresemann
M. Stresemann a rendu, hier, à M.;
Briand « sa politesse ». A l'unanimité, le
cabinet d'Empire a approuvé la conti-
nuation des pourparlers franco-alle-
mands, comme l'avait fait mardi le con-
seil des ministres français.
Sur un point, lé communiqué allemand
confirme les déclarations de M. Briand
aucun' engagement n'a été pris à Thoiry
la décision* dépend des gouvernements.
Mais sur la nature et le degré d'avance-,
ment des pourparlers, il apporte des pré-
cisions complémentaires. Il s'agit bien
d.'un marché nous évacuerions la .Rhé-
nanie -et céderions les mines de la Sarre; '̃
en* retour le Reich commercialiserait les
obligations ferroviaires du plan Dawes
et, au titre des réparations, nous en. fe-
rait' la remise anticipée. Le chiffre,.et les
modalités .de ces versements doivent; être
discutés, parades 'experts !à Berlin dès le
mois-; d'octobre.