La Tribune de Madagascar
- Paid Holidays for Workers
- The Stahltrust
- Conversations
The front page of La Tribune de Madagascar for 5 October 1926 carried a piece on paid holidays for workers, although the reading captures only the masthead line under that heading, giving the paper's 20th year and issue number 1927. A short polemical item on the German 'Stahltrust' claimed that the Americans had imposed the new steel combine on Germany in return for credit. It quoted a financial magnate, whose name is illegible in the reading, as saying that whoever bought German heavy industry also bought its political power, and that the lenders would allow Germany neither a war nor an alliance with the Soviets. A news item on the Mussolini–Chamberlain talks at Livorno reported that the two men stressed Italo-British intimacy. It added that French newspapers regretted that the great Mediterranean power seemed shut out, and that the Écho de Paris doubted the meeting would have great international consequences.
Translation
Paid Holidays for Workers
20th Year No. 1927 LA
The Stahltrust
[?] The Stahltrust
The Stahltrust was imposed on the Germans by the Americans in order to open credits to them. Now, here is what a magnate of finance [?] says about it: [?] "We [?] not bought German heavy industry without buying its political power. What remains of the German army will become the police that guards our property. Having placed the loan of German industry, we will no longer allow this country to contemplate a war that would interfere with our business. Nor will we allow it any longer to make an alliance with the Soviets."
Conversations
…not previously in decisions of the same kind.
Conversations
Mussolini and Chamberlain discussed international questions; they noted the intimacy of Italo-British relations and the coincidence of the two governments' lines of conduct in solving the most important European problems. Commenting on the Mussolini–Chamberlain meeting, the newspapers regret that the great Mediterra [?] nean power seems to be excluded from conversations touching on problems whose solution could not leave it indifferent. The Écho de Paris does not believe that the Livorno meeting will have great interna-
Context
What the 'Stahltrust' was
The 'Stahltrust' attacked in this item was the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (United Steel Works), founded in Germany in 1926, so the paper was commenting on a combine in its first months. Falling prices and excess capacity drove several Ruhr firms, including Thyssen, into the merger. Its size helps explain why a foreign paper could treat it as a political as well as an industrial matter. In the 1930s, with up to about 250,000 workers, it produced roughly 40 percent of Germany's steel and 20 percent of its coal. Those figures come from a later decade, but they show the weight of the enterprise whose creation the article presents as an American instrument of control.
Why the paper tied the trust to American credit
The article's link between the steel trust and American credit rests on a real background. The 1924 Dawes Plan, which rescheduled German reparations, gave Germany a large loan, about half of which was raised through Wall Street bond issues, and it pledged an interest-bearing mortgage of 5 billion Reichsmarks on German industry as a guarantee for payments. Foreign money kept flowing afterwards: by 1929 Germany had received 29 billion Reichsmarks in loans. The article goes well beyond this record. It says the Americans imposed the trust and quotes a magnate, whose name is illegible, boasting that the remnant German army would police American property. The Dawes arrangements described above consisted of a loan and a mortgage on German industry; they did not include a merger. Its language follows a line of argument already current in Germany, where the Communist Party had denounced the Dawes Plan as economic imperialism.
What the Chamberlain–Mussolini meetings were
The 'Conversations' item reports one of the private meetings between Sir Austen Chamberlain, the British Foreign Secretary, and Benito Mussolini, this time at Livorno. Chamberlain had shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the Locarno Treaties, and while in office he met Mussolini five times in complete privacy, without aides or interpreters, since both spoke fluent French. According to the historian Peter Edwards, their communiqués were conglomerations of clichés that stressed friendship and political harmony without naming the subjects discussed. The 'intimacy' and 'coincidence' of policy reported here fit that pattern. Such vague statements fed rumours of secret deals, which helps explain why French papers feared that the great Mediterranean power, presumably France, was being left out. Edwards, working from British and Italian archives, concluded that much of the speculation was very wide of the mark, which is close to the Écho de Paris's sceptical view that the Livorno meeting would not have great international consequences.
Original
Les congés ouvriers payés
20e Année N ° 1927 LA
Le Stahltrust
[?] Le Stahltrust Le stahltrust a été imposé aux Allemands par les Américains pour leur ouvrir des crédits. Or, voici ce qu'en dit un magnat de la finance [?]: [?] Nous [?] pas acheté l'industrie lourde allemande sans acheter sa puissance politique. Ce qui reste de l'armée allemands deviendra la police qui gardera notre propriété. Ayant placé l'emprunt de l'Industrie allemande, nous ne permettrons plus que ce pays songe à une guerre qui gê nerait nos alTa. res. Non» ne lui permettrons nus davar. tage défaire alliance avec les Soviets.
Conversations
pas antérieurement dans les décisions de même ordre. Conversations Mussolini et Chamberlain s'entretinrent des questions internationales; ils constatèrent l'intimité des relations italo-britanniques, la coïncidence de la ligne de conduite des deux gouvernements pour la solution des plus importants problèmes européens. Commentant l'entrevue Mussolini Chamberlain, les journaux regrettent que la grande puissance méditerra [?] éenne semble exclue des conversations touchant des problèmes dont la solution ne saurait la laisser indifférente. L'Écho de Paris ne croit pas que l'entrevue de Livourne ait de grandes conséquences interna -