Le Figaro
- English opinion and the inter-Allied debts
- The Germersheim incident
- If there had been less waiting...
Le Figaro's front page of 2 October 1926 set foreign-policy polemic beside domestic finance. An editorial signed "Intérim." seized on a Times article arguing that any revision of the inter-Allied debt settlements would have to come from Washington, and that Europe could never pay its debts or reparations while American financial policy and protectionist tariffs stood. A "Foreign Affairs" note accused nationalist German papers such as the Lokal Anzeiger of exploiting incidents at Germersheim, Trier and Koblenz to wreck rapprochement just after Germany's admission at Geneva, and promised that an inter-Allied inquiry would set the record straight. Henri Vonoven's political column greeted the education reorganization as the last step of the economies authorized by the law of 3 August, blamed the Cartel for years of delay, and called for reform of parliamentary habits and even constitutional rules.
Translation
English opinion and the inter-Allied debts
...examined publicly. The Times has just brought us a document that is all the more significant because the English press has always observed great discretion on the subject of the inter-Allied debts. In a nuanced and diplomatic form, the Times upholds a thesis that is, at bottom, very clear-cut. It observes that if the debt settlement is ever revised, the initiative for such a solution must come from the United States. This revision does not seem imminent to our British colleague, but one can discern that it seems inevitable to it. Time must do its work. American opinion, already alerted by a small number of independent men, industrialists or technical experts, will end up adopting a realistic policy on this essential question. It is not sentimental reasons that will decide it; it is practical considerations that will gradually spread among the public. And what are these considerations? The Times indicates, in very measured but very clear sentences, that the education of the nation will come not from the politicians but from the associations, from the businessmen who are already concerned about the future. For this thoughtful minority, revision of the debt settlement is the best solution, because Europe will never be able to pay either the debts or the reparations as long as the United States maintains its financial policy and, notably, its protectionist tariffs. It will no doubt take some time for the whole of America to adopt this theory; the Times has no doubt that it will come round to it in the end. To "the great injustice" are added the lofty considerations concerning the economic and financial domain set out by the Times. Arguments of the same kind have been presented with precision
The Germersheim incident
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Germersheim incident
It is truly disappointing, so soon after the Reich's admission at Geneva and the inauguration of a new policy of rapprochement, to observe the systematic campaign of certain newspapers across the Rhine. After the Germersheim incident, in the course of which a German — a dangerous habitual offender — met his death, and after the incident that occurred the day before yesterday at Trier, where a French worker killed a local inhabitant, yesterday it was a third incident that the Lokal Anzeiger took pleasure in highlighting, one said to have taken place at Koblenz: a German student is alleged to have been brutally beaten by French soldiers. There is no doubt that the nationalist newspaper is seeking, through a new campaign, to inflame minds and to make the Rhineland occupation difficult for our troops. But the Koblenz incident will go the way of the Germersheim incident: the inter-Allied commission, to which the matter has been referred, will carry out a meticulous inquiry whose conclusions will be communicated to the Reich government; responsibilities will be established and, if need be, sanctions taken. An impartial examination of the facts will probably yield a version of this new incident completely different from that of the organs of the major German press. And we will know, once again, what to make of the impartiality and good faith of our former enemies.
The "Times" article and the American claim
If there had been less waiting...
POLITICS
If there had been less waiting...
With the measures reorganizing the public education services, submitted yesterday to the Council of Ministers, the cycle of economies and reforms envisaged by the law of 3 August last seems to have run its full course. Whatever happens in Parliament, most of these simplifications, despite criticisms, several of which are justified, will remain in place and will sooner or later be realized in money terms. What has just been accomplished was therefore not impossible. And yet, for how long had these cutbacks, these mergers, these abolitions been demanded? People despaired of ever seeing them carried out. The Marin report dates from 1923; but M. Marin did no more than codify, so to speak, the complaints of all those who were worried about a budget eaten away by bureaucracy and who denounced many useless establishments, many posts doubled or multiplied tenfold, for the sole benefit of their occupants and of those who had had them appointed to these places. For it goes back a long way, the Radical conception of the State as Great Provider for faithful voters. And for a long time, too, the growing burden of salaries both insufficient and multiplied has weighed on the taxpayer. Every budget debate increased the total. The Cartel triumphed over the economy decrees. To administrative reforms, the Reformers of the Eleventh of May preferred inflation. It took the threat of bankruptcy, answering the threat of their return to power, for Parliament to resign itself to entrusting the Government of Union with the powers it is now using. Only later shall we know the exact sum of these economies. But if the abolitions had been made sooner, it is our current tax bills that would have benefited. The fable shows that... This story shows the need to reform our parliamentary habits and doubtless, too, our constitutional rules, since it is proving true that a policy of public salvation could be pursued only in the absence of the Chambers, whose indispensable, essential oversight has little by little turned into a hindrance, serving to safeguard private interests and particularly those of the elected members.
Henri Vonoven.
ECHOES
Context
Why the Times' argument on American tariffs appealed to Paris
The editorial appeared five months after the Mellon–Bérenger Agreement of 29 April 1926 fixed the amount and rate of repayment of France's war debt to the United States. The settlement greatly reduced what France owed and offered relatively easy terms, yet it was deeply unpopular in France. A central French grievance was that the United States refused to link repayments to German reparations, even though such a link existed in the British arrangement. That is why Le Figaro welcomed a British paper saying that Europe could not pay debts or reparations while American financial policy and tariffs remained unchanged: it put the French case in a respected foreign voice. The tariff point was a real grievance, since punitive duties on French goods had created a serious trade imbalance between the two countries. The paper's hope, attributed to the Times, that American opinion would eventually accept revision was not borne out in this period: the French Chamber ratified the 1926 agreement only on 21 July 1929, by 300 votes to 292.
Germersheim: a shooting that tested the Locarno détente
The Germersheim case that the paper dismisses was the fatal shooting of Emil Müller in the town on 27 September 1926 by a French sub-lieutenant, Pierre Rouzier. It came just over two weeks after the Locarno treaties entered into force on 10 September with Germany's admission to the League of Nations, the admission at Geneva that Le Figaro invokes. Coverage split along national lines: the German press treated Rouzier's guilt as settled early on, while French media reported that he had been attacked and had acted in self-defence. The paper's description of the dead man as a dangerous habitual offender belongs to that French framing and remains the paper's own assertion. The affair was then taken before a French military court at Landau, where Rouzier's trial opened on 17 December 1926. He was acquitted, while German defendants received prison terms of three months to two years. President Doumergue then pardoned the convicted Germans on 25 December, a gesture Stresemann read as a sign that France wanted détente with Germany.
What the law of 3 August 1926 allowed the government to cut
Vonoven's "cycle of economies and reforms" refers to delegated powers granted to Raymond Poincaré's government. Adopted by a large majority, the law of 3 August 1926 authorized the government in its first article to proceed by decree, until 31 December, with suppressions or mergers of posts, establishments or services. The cuts were substantial: Poincaré closed 106 sub-prefectures and 153 revenue offices and eliminated thousands of ministry posts, and a decree of 3 September abolished 227 district courts and 218 jails. The public-education reorganization that the column reports going to the Council of Ministers is presented there as completing that programme, though the column itself concedes that the exact savings were not yet known. Its closing argument, that public salvation was possible only without the Chambers, reflects the method's real character. A decree-law was a government act, authorized by Parliament, that took measures normally belonging to the domain of law, and the related decentralization decree of 5 November 1926, issued about a month after this page, was adopted without substantive parliamentary debate.
The Cartel, the franc crisis and the "Government of Union"
Vonoven's barbs about the "Reformers of the Eleventh of May" and a Cartel that "preferred inflation" target the left-wing Cartel des gauches, which won the 1924 legislative elections; the column's label alludes to that victory. Independent history confirms the broad sequence he invokes, if not his partisan verdict. The state's credit crisis turned into a monetary crisis that in 1925 alone used up no fewer than seven finance ministers. In the summer of 1926 the Chamber of Deputies refused the Cartel government full powers and its confidence, and Poincaré formed a government of national union above the parties and sought full powers to save the franc. The "threat of bankruptcy" in the column is thus the currency crisis that brought the "Government of Union" to office. Whether the Cartel positively preferred inflation to administrative reform is the columnist's interpretation, not an established fact.
Original
L'opinion anglaise et les dettes interalliées
examiné publiquement. Le Times vient de nous apporter un document d'autant plus significatif que la presse anglaise a toujours observé une grande discrétion au sujet des dettes interalliées. Dans une forme nuancée et diplomatique, le Times soutient une thèse qui est, au fond, très nette. Il observe que si jamais le règlement des dettes est revisé, l'initiative d'une telle solution doit venir des EtatsUnis. Cette revision ne paraît pas prochaine à notre confrère britannique: mais on discerne qu'elle lui paraît inévitable. Il faut que le temps fasse son œuvre. L'opinion américaine, déjà avertie par un petit nombre d'hommes indépendants, industriels ou techniciens, finira par adopter sur cette question essentielle une politique réaliste. Ce ne sont pas des raisons sentimentales qui la détermineront, ce sont des considérations positives qui peu à peu se répandront dans le public. Et quelles sont ces considérations? Le Times indique en des phrases très mesurées, mais très claires que l'éducation de la nation ne viendra pas des politiciens, mais des Associations, des hommes d'affaires qui, dès aujourd'hui, se préoccupent de l'avenir. Pour cette minorité réfléchie, la revision du règlement des dettes est la solution la meilleure, parce que jamais l'Europe ne pourra payer ni les dettes ni les réparations tant que les Etats-Unis maintiendront leur politique financière et, notamment, leurs tarifs protectionniste. Il faudra quelque temps sans doute pour que l'Amérique tout entière adopte cette théorie: le Times ne doute pas qu'elle ne finisse par y venir. A «la grande injustice» viennent s'ajouter les hautes considérations touchant le domaine économique et financier qui sont exposées par le Times. Des arguments du même ordre ont été présentés avec précision
L'incident de Germersheim
LES AFFAIRES EXTÉRIEURES L'incident de Germersheim Il est vraiment décevant, au lendemain de l'admission du Reich à Genève et de l'inauguration d'une nouvelle politique de rapprochement, de constater la campagne systématique de certains journaux d'outre-Rhin. Après l'incident de Germersheim, au cours duquel un Allemand - un dangereux repris de justice - trouva la mort, après l'incident survenu, avant-hier, à Trèves, où un ouvrier français tua un indigène, c'était hier un troisième incident que le Lokal Anzeiger se plaisait à souligner et qui se serait déroulé à Coblence: un étudiant allemand aurait été brutalement frappé par des soldats français. Nul doute que le journal nationaliste ne cherche, par une nouvelle campagne, à surexciter les esprits et à rendre l'occupation rhénane difficile à nos troupes. Mais il en sera de l'incident de Coblence comme de celui de Germersheim: la commission interalliée, saisie de l'affaire, procédera à une enquête minutieuse dont les conclusions seront communiquées au gouvernement du Reich; les responsabilités seront établies et, au besoin, les sanctions prises. L'examen impartial des faits donnera vraisemblablement de ce nouvel incident une version totalement différente de celle des organes de la grande presse allemande. Et nous saurons, une fois de plus, à quoi nous en tenir sur l'impartialité et la bonne foi de nos anciens ennemis. L'article du «Times» et la créance américaine
Si l'on avait moins attendu...
LA POLITIQUE Si l'on avait moins attendu... Avec les mesures de réorganisation des services de l'instruction publique, soumises hier au Conseil des ministres, le cycle des économies et réformes envisagé par la loi du 3 août dernier, semble complètement parcouru. Quoi qu'il arrive parlementairement, la plupart de ces simplications, malgré des critiques, dont plusieurs sont justifiées, demeureront acquises et seront tôt ou tard pécuniairement réalisées. Ce qui vient d'être accompli n'était donc pas impossible. Ces compressions, ces rattachements, ces suppressions depuis combien de temps cependant les réclamait-on? On désespérait de les voir effectués jamais. Le rapport Marin est de 1923; mais M. Marin n'a fait que codifier, en quelque sorte, les plaintes de tous ceux que préoccupait un budget rongé par le fonctionnarisme et qui dénonçaient maints établissements inutiles, maints postes doublés ou décuplés, au seul profit des occupants et de ceux qui les avaient fait nommer à ces places. C'est qu'elle remonte loin, la conception radicale de l'Etat, Grand-Nourricier d'électeurs fidèles. Et voilà longtemps, aussi, que pèse sur le contribuable la charge grandissante des traitements insuffisants et multipliés. Chaque discussion de budget en majorait le total. Le Cartel triompha contre les décrets d'économie. Aux réformes administratives, les Réformateurs du Onze mai préférèrent l'inflation. Il a fallu qu'à la menace de leur retour au pouvoir répondît la menace de la banqueroute, pour que le Parlement se résignât à confier au Gouvernement d'Union les pouvoirs dont il use. Nous ne connaîtrons qu'ultérieurement la somme exacte de ces économies. Mais si les suppressions avaient été plus tôt faites, ce sont nos feuilles d'impôts actuelles qui en auraient bénéficié. O muthos déloï oti... Cette histoire montre la nécessité de réformer nos mœurs parlementaires et sans doute, aussi nos règles constitutionnelles puisqu'il se vérifie qu'une politique de salut public n'a pu être poursuivie qu'en l'absence des Chambres dont le contrôle indispensable, essentiel, peu à peu, s'est transformé en entrave, pour la sauvegarde des intérêts particuliers et particulièrement de ceux des élus. Henri Vonoven. ÉCHOS