Le Figaro
- BASQUE LANDSCAPES 1926
- THE STEEL CARTEL
- A POLICY OF NAVAL CONSTRUCTION
On 1 October 1926 Le Figaro printed a signed essay by André Maurois admiring the French Basque country, where new villas copied the local farmhouse style of white walls, asymmetrical tiled roofs and painted beams; he likened this to great writers who build their style out of everyday speech. A Brussels dispatch reported that the international steel cartel of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany had been signed on 30 September, after Belgium won its demand for a monthly quota of 295,000 tonnes instead of 265,000. Admiral Ratyé argued that building warships in series could get four ships instead of three for the same outlay. He said frequent changes to the naval programme kept the navy from building this way.
This is a partial reading: only three short passages could be transcribed reliably, and the Maurois and Ratyé excerpts are fragments of longer columns. Fine print, some names and figures, and text cut at tile edges are left out. The steel dispatch breaks off mid-sentence, and the naval column starts and ends mid-sentence. This reading gives no background on the neo-Basque villa style or on French naval series construction in 1926.
Translation
BASQUE LANDSCAPES 1926
[?] In no region of France do new houses blend so harmoniously with the old villages. That is because the architects have had the wisdom to copy the rustic style of the country. Villas and farmhouses have the same white walls, the same asymmetrical tiled roofs, the same exposed beams, painted red-lead red or flag blue. They differ from one another only by subtle nuances. The houses of people of means have fresher roughcast; their checked curtains are perhaps more studiously homespun; a few curves of windows and porches are bolder. But custom has been followed. Just so the great writer, a Molière or a Stendhal, barely transposing a few phrases, forms his style from the common tongue.
André Maurois.
THE STEEL CARTEL
THE STEEL CARTEL
It was constituted yesterday and will come into force today
BRUSSELS, September 30. — This morning in Brussels the meeting was held of the delegates of the four countries — France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany — concerned in the conclusion of the steel cartel. The discussion bore exclusively on the Belgian claims. It is known that Belgian industry had demanded 295,000 tonnes of monthly production instead of the 265,000 that had been allotted to it. Belgium won its case. Signatures were exchanged this
A POLICY OF NAVAL CONSTRUCTION
in series by the same yard. For a similar outlay, in one case one will have three units; in the other, four.
⁂
The navy is far from failing to recognize the advantages of series construction. Its engineers know all its benefits; but when it comes to passing from theory to practice, they are prevented from above and from below. From above: it is the all-too-frequent changes of programme inherent
By Admiral RATYÉ.
Context
How the Brussels steel cartel was built, and why Belgium's quota mattered
Le Figaro's Brussels dispatch describes the last step in months of bargaining. Delegates from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany met on 30 September, argued only over Belgian claims, and signed once Belgium got its monthly allocation raised from 265,000 to 295,000 tonnes. The historical record agrees on the date: the International Steel Agreement (Entente internationale de l'acier) was created on 30 September 1926. It was run by a council representing the German, French, Belgian and Luxembourg industries, the same four groups named in the dispatch. The paper's report of a Belgian victory fits a later account of how quotas were shared out. Germany's share was set below its proportion of production, while Belgium's was set above it, a choice made for political reasons. That account describes the imbalance without giving tonnages; the 265,000- and 295,000-tonne figures are the newspaper's own.
What the cartel was meant to achieve, and how quickly it was strained
The dispatch treats the cartel as a done deal, but in 1926 it also carried political hopes. Gustav Stresemann hoped that other industries, "without stopping at state borders," would follow steel's example. The agreement was concluded amid the euphoria surrounding Germany's entry into the League of Nations. To enforce the quotas, each national group had to pay the cartel 4 dollars for every tonne produced above its quota. The system was soon under pressure. From September to December 1926, Germany exceeded its quota by 9 to 25 percent. By early 1927, German steelmakers were loudly demanding that the quotas be revised and threatening to leave the agreement. The quota bargaining that Le Figaro reports as settled on 30 September was therefore the start of an unstable arrangement, not the end of the dispute.
Who André Maurois was when he wrote about the Basque villas
The Basque essay is signed by André Maurois, whose closing comparison with Molière and Stendhal shows a man of letters looking at architecture. Maurois was the pen name of Émile Herzog, born in 1885 in Elbeuf, the son of a textile manufacturer. During the First World War he served as an interpreter and later as a liaison officer with the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble (1918), drew on that experience and was an immediate success in France. By 1926 he had also published a life of Shelley, Ariel (1923); he was not yet the academician he became in 1938. The essay's argument is his own: good new building, like good style, grows out of local, popular forms. It is an aesthetic view, not a survey of Basque architecture.
Original
PAYSAGES BASQUES 1926
[?] En aucune région de la France les maisons neuves ne s'unissent aussi harmonieusement aux vieux villages. C'est que les architectes ont eu la sagesse de copier le style rustique du pays. Villas et fermes ont les mêmes murs blancs, les mêmes toits de tuiles dissymétriques, les mêmes poutres apparentes, peintes en rouge minium, en bleu drapeau. Elles ne diffèrent les unes des autres que par de subtiles nuances. Les maisons des gens de luxe ont un crépi plus frais; leurs rideaux à carreaux sont peut-être plus studieusement populaires; quelques courbes de fenêtres et de porches sont plus hardies. Mais l'usage a été suivi. Ainsi le grand écrivain, Molière ou Stendhal, transposant à peine quelques phrases, forme son style du langage vulgaire.
LE CARTEL DE L'ACIER
LE CARTEL DE L'ACIER Il a été constitué hier et entrera en vigueur aujourd'hui BRUXELLES, 30 septembre. - Ce matin a eu lieu, à Bruxelles, la réunion des délégués des quatre pays, France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Allemagne, intéressés à la conclusion du cartel de l'acier. La discussion a porté exclusivement sur les revendications belges. On sait que l'industrie belge a réclamé 295. 000 tonnes de production mensuelle au lieu des 265. 000 qui lui avaient été attribuées. La Belgique a obtenu gain de cause. Les signatures ont été échangées ce
UNE POLITIQUE DE CONSTRUCTION NAVALE
en série par le même chantier. Pour une dépense semblable, dans un cas: on aura trois unités; dans l'autre: quatre. ⁂ La marine est loin de méconnaître les profits de la construction en série. Ses ingénieurs en savent tous les bénéfices; mais lorsqu'il s'agit de passer de la théorie à la pratique, ils en sont empêchés en haut et en bas. En haut: ce sont les trop fréquentes variations de programme inhérentes