L’Écho d’Alger
- The Paris Meeting
- Our Debt to America
- IN MOROCCO
This Algiers daily's page gathered French press reaction to Aristide Briand's meeting in Paris with Austen Chamberlain, who had earlier seen Mussolini at Livorno. Le Petit Parisien and L'Œuvre said the meeting refuted attempts to set Livorno against Thoiry or to conjure up an Italo-British bloc, l'Avenir argued that Britain could not officially block a Franco-German rapprochement it had itself advocated, and the Echo de Paris warned that London always feared too close an understanding on the Continent. A second report said France would obtain no concessions from Washington on its war debt. It quoted an American debt commissioner who expected France to ask for safeguard clauses, be refused and still ratify the Bérenger–Mellon agreement, and it carried a French deputy's personal plea to put all inter-Allied debts before an international conference or tribunal. A third item relayed the League of the Rights of Man's protest over a photograph sold in Tetuan that showed Spanish soldiers holding the severed heads of five Riffian chiefs while another soldier half-unfurled a Red Cross flag. The reading covers only these three excerpts.
Translation
The Paris Meeting
…him. Yesterday's conversation may, if that was needed, have made clear to him the intentions of France, for whom there can be no question of letting the manoeuvre sketched out by Mr. Mussolini develop.
The Paris Meeting
IN THE FRENCH PRESS
Commenting on the Briand-Chamberlain meeting, the Echo de Paris observes that the English are sincere when they deny feeling any uneasiness about the Franco-German rapprochement, "but their policy has always been made of contradictions." They disapprove of too sharp an animosity between the peoples of the Continent, one liable to degenerate into war. On the other hand, they fear between these same peoples [?] too intimate an agreement, out of which might come a power capable of threatening their security. That is why it will always be very difficult for a young France drawn close to Germany not to worry England and not to incline her to seek a counterweight in other alliances.
For Le Petit Parisien, the subjects examined by the English and French Ministers are the same as those raised at Livorno. The chief place was naturally taken by the question of the Franco-German rapprochement. Mr. Chamberlain did not fail to inform Mr. Briand of the views, the concerns and the desiderata of Mr. Mussolini. Le Petit Parisien considers that yesterday's meeting gives the clearest denial to those who have tried to set Livorno against Thoiry.
L'Œuvre likewise declares that the Briand-Chamberlain meeting knocks down the perfidious constructions of certain commentators who were already setting up, against a Franco-German bloc that is not in question, an Italo-English bloc that is hardly conceivable and to which Mr. Chamberlain, moreover, could not lend himself.
It is evident, writes l'Avenir, that England cannot officially stand in the way of a Franco-German rapprochement that she herself advocated and that, besides, she…
Our Debt to America
Our Debt to America
WE WILL OBTAIN NO CONCESSION
Washington, October 3. – Although no proposal to that effect has been submitted to the White House, President Coolidge would reportedly oppose any plan for settling war debts and reparations that provided for the sale or acceptance by the American Government of German railway securities.
Mr. Barnes, a member of the American debt commission, conferred on his return from Europe with Mr. Mellon, to whom he gave his opinion. According to him [?] France will ask for a security clause and a clause taking into account cases of reverses. He believes that the United States will reject these demands and that France will in the end ratify the Bérenger-Mellon agreement.
A STATEMENT BY MR. DARIAC
Alençon, October 3. – At a banquet held under the chairmanship of Mr. Queuille on the occasion of the show of the Percheron horse breed and the Normandy cattle breed, Mr. Dariac, chairman of the Chamber's debts subcommittee, speaking about the Washington accords, declared, stressing that he was speaking in a purely personal capacity:
Considering the work accomplished at Geneva by the League of Nations, examining this vast and generous movement that is leading a people as particularist as England, and 50 nations with her, to entrust to an international body the task of deciding questions as grave as territorial questions, questions in which national honour is at stake, one wonders for what reasons a problem far less important from the moral point of view, that of liquidating inter-Allied debts and claims, should not be brought as a whole, in its full extent, at Geneva or elsewhere, before an international conference or tribunal. I am asking, therefore [?] I am not answering. But if I understand correctly, the same question is being asked almost everywhere. And when an effort is being made on every side to liquidate the tragic past; when France and Germany [?] at Thoiry; when they strive to forget memories singularly more painful, I can hardly imagine that a generous, humane America could, for a material interest, keep aloof from this great movement.
In Italy Fascist justice
IN MOROCCO
[?] Paris, October 3. – The League of the Rights of Man sends us the following: In the streets of Tetuan (Spanish zone of Morocco), a photograph is being sold that shows a group of Spanish soldiers holding in their hands five heads of executed Riffian chiefs. Another soldier in the group is half-unfurling the Red Cross flag. It is scandalous that such a photograph can be put on sale and that such an example of barbarity should be offered as a spectacle. It is scandalous, too, to add irony to cruelty by thus prostituting the emblem of the Red Cross. The French League for the Rights of Man has asked the Spanish League to protest to its Government both against these atrocities and against the publicity that some did not shrink from giving them.
Grim discovery
HIKERS FIND A SKELETON
Context
Why the press insisted that Livorno did not undermine Thoiry
The paper's round-up shows the French press reading Chamberlain's Paris talk with Briand as proof that his earlier meeting with Mussolini at Livorno did not mark the start of an Anglo-Italian counterweight to Franco-German reconciliation. Le Petit Parisien said the meeting refuted those who tried to 'set Livorno against Thoiry,' and L'Œuvre dismissed talk of rival blocs. The point mattered that autumn because Franco-German reconciliation had just reached a milestone: the Locarno negotiations of 1925 had planned for Germany to join the League of Nations, which it did in September 1926, and Briand and Gustav Stresemann shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on Locarno. Suspicion of British motives existed on the German side too: Stresemann later wrote that Chamberlain 'had never been our friend' and that his first act had been to try to restore the old Entente. The Echo de Paris's warning that Britain feared too close an understanding on the Continent thus touched on a doubt, shared elsewhere, about how far London really supported Franco-German reconciliation.
What was at stake in the Bérenger–Mellon debt agreement
The Washington dispatch assumes that readers knew the Mellon–Bérenger accord, signed on 29 April 1926, which set how France would repay its wartime debt to the United States. Barnes's forecast that France would seek a security clause and a clause covering reverses touched the agreement's most contested point in France. The French had wanted their payments to the United States linked to German reparations, as their settlement with Britain was, but the United States would not accept the linkage. The accord was deeply unpopular in France, where 20,000 war veterans demonstrated in Paris, and most French people felt Washington should waive its claims altogether. That public mood is the setting for Dariac's personal proposal to send all inter-Allied debts to an international conference or tribunal, which he framed in the spirit of Geneva and Thoiry. Barnes was right that France would ratify in the end, but it took nearly three years: the Chamber of Deputies approved the 1926 agreement on 21 July 1929 by 300 votes to 292, and the United States still refused any link to reparation receipts.
The Rif War and the photograph of severed heads
The League of the Rights of Man's protest came a few months after the end of the main fighting in the Rif War, the anti-colonial conflict of 1921–1926 between the Berber tribes of northern Morocco and Spain, which France joined in 1924. Abd el-Krim, the leader of the revolt, surrendered to French authorities on 27 May 1926, but pockets of resistance held out until Spanish forces took the last of them in July 1927. The photograph of executed Riffian chiefs was therefore on sale in Tetuan while Spain was still subduing the last Rif resistance, although the page does not say when the executions took place. Violence of this kind runs through the war's record: mutilation of hostages was reported on both sides, including the severing of heads in retaliation for mutilations first inflicted on Spanish troops, and a 1922 photograph shows Spanish legionnaires holding up severed Moroccan heads. Atrocities by the Spanish Army of Africa have been attributed partly to a 'compulsive spirit of revenge' after massacres such as Monte Arruit in 1921. The page records the French League's protest and its appeal to the Spanish League, but it does not show whether either league investigated or how Madrid responded.
Original
L'entrevue de Paris
lui. La conversation d'hier a pu, si besoin en était, le fixer sur les intentions de la France pour qui il ne peut être question de laisser se développer la manœuvre esquissée par M. Mussolini. L'entrevue de Paris DANS LA PRESSE FRANÇAISE Commentant l'entrevue BriandChamberlain, l'Echo de Paris observe que les Anglais sont sincères quand ils se défendent d'éprouver aucune inquiétude à l'égard du rapprochement franco-allemand, mais leur politique a toujours été faite de contradictions.» Ils réprouvent entre les peuples du continent une animosité trop vive susceptible de dégénérer en guerre. Par contre, ils redoutent entre ces mêmes peuples [?] un accord trop intime d'où peut sortir une puissance capable de menacer leur sécurité. C'est pour cela qu'il sera toujours bien difficile à une jeune France rapprochée de l'Allemagne de ne pas inquiéter l'Angleterre et de ne pas l'incliner à chercher un contrepoids dans d'autres alliances. Pour Le Petit Parisien, les sujets examinés par les Ministres Anglais et Français sont les mêmes que ceux qui ont été abordés à Livourne. La place principale a été prise naturellement par la question du rapprochement francoallemand. M. Chamberlain n'a pas manqué de mettre M. Briand au courant des vues, des préoccupations et des desiderata de M. Mussolini. Le Petit Parisien estime que l'entrevue d'hier inflige le plus net démenti à ceux qui ont essayé d'opposer Livourne à Thoiry. L'Œuvre également, déclare que l'entrevue Briand-Chamberlain jette bas les constructions perfides de quelques commentateurs qui dressaient déjà contre un bloc franco-allemand, dont il n'est pas question, un bloc italoanglais mal concevable et auquel M. Chamberlain, d'ailleurs, ne saurait se prêter. Il est évident, écrit l'Avenir que l'Angleterre ne peut officiellement, se mettre en travers d'un rapprochement franco-allemand qu'elle a elle-même préconisé et, qu'au demeurant, elle
Notre dette envers l'Amérique
Notre dette envers l'Amérique NOUS N'OBTIENDRONS AUCUNE CONCESSION Washington, 3 octobre. - Bien qu'aucune proposition dans ce sens ait été soumise à la Maison Blanche, le président Coolidge s'opposerait à tout plan pour le règlement des dettes de guerre et des réparations prévoyant la vente ou l'acceptation par le Gouvernement américain des valeurs ferroviaires allemandes. M. Barnes, membre de la commission américaine des dettes, dès son retour d'Europe, a conféré avec M. Mellon auquel il a exprimé son opinion. Selon lui [?] la France demandera une clause de sécurité et une clause prenant en considération les cas de revers. Il estime que les Etats-Unis rejetteront ces demandes et que la France ratifiera, finalement, l'accord BérengerMellon. UN EXPOSE DE M. DARIAC Alençon, 3 octobre. - Au cours d'un banquet donné sous la présidence de M. Queuille à l'occasion du concours de la race hippique percheronne et de la race bovine normande, M. Dariac, président de la sous-commission des dettes de la Chambre, discourant à propos des accords de Washington a déclaré, en insistant sur ce point, qu'il parlait à titre purement personnel: Considérant l'œuvre accomplie à Genève par la S. D. N., scrutant ce vaste et généreux mouvement qui entraîne un peuple aussi particulariste que l'Angleterre et 50 nations avec elle, à s'en remettre à un organisme international du soin de décider dans les questions aussi graves que les questions territoriales, dans les questions où l'honneur national est en jeu, on se demande pour quelles raisons un problème bien moins important au point de vue moral, celui de la liquidation des dettes et des créances interalliées, ne serait pas porté en bloc, dans toute son étendue, à Genève ou ailleurs, devant une conférence ou un tribunal international. J'interroge, donc [?] je ne réponds pas. Mais si je comprends bien, un peu partout la même interrogation se pose. Et quand de toute part un effort est fait pour liquider le tragique passé; quand la France et l'Allemagne [?] à Thoiry; quand elles s'efforcent d'oublier des souvenirs singulièrement plus douloureux, j'imagine mal qu'une Amérique généreuse, humaine, puisse, pour un intérêt matériel, se tenir à l'écart de ce grand mouvement. En Italie La justice fasciste
AU MAROC
[?] Paris, 3 octobre. - La Ligue des Droits de l'Homme nous communique: On vend dans les rues de Tétouan (zone espagnole du Maroc) une photographie représentant un groupe de soldats espagnols qui tiennent dans leurs mains cinq têtes de chefs riffains exécutés. Un autre soldat du groupe déploie à demi le drapeau de la Croix-Rouge. Il est scandaleux qu'une telle photographie puisse être mise en vente et qu'un pareil exemple de barbarie soit donné en spectacle. Il est scandaleux encore d'ajouter l'ironie à la cruauté, en prostituant ainsi l'emblème de la Croix-rouge. La Ligue française des Droits de l'homme a demandé à la Ligue espagnole de protester auprès de son Gouvernement, et contre ces atrocités et contre la publicité qu'on n'a pas craint de leur donner. Macabre découverte DES EXCURSIONNISTES TROUVENT UN SQUELETTE