Le Figaro
- Historic Verdict
- The Little Return
- Assassination of a French NCO in the Rhineland
Le Figaro's front page of 5 October 1926 carried an argument against Gustav Stresemann in a short editorial signed "Intérim", "Verdict historique", which insisted that the German foreign minister was wrong to try to clear his country of war guilt and that Italy's decision at the outbreak of war in 1914, taken while still allied to Germany and Austria, settled the matter. Henri Vonoven's political column described a sleepy parliamentary return: the Chamber's finance committee met, adjourned almost at once for more information, and left deputies gossiping in the lobby while the opposition stayed calm. Under the foreign-affairs rubric, beside the Paris exchange table, the paper announced the assassination of a French non-commissioned officer in the occupied Rhineland.
Translation
Historic Verdict
…an unspoken misunderstanding persisted between them, the patient and the immovable preparing for the great isolation of winter, and we who, at autumn's invitation, were returning toward the noise of the cities, to business, to society, to dreams, to passions… Camille Mauclair.
Historic Verdict
M. Stresemann persists. M. Stresemann is wrong. To demolish his claim to exonerate his country, it is enough to invoke the resolution taken at the beginning of the war by Italy, then the ally of Germany and Austria. This testimony, of decisive weight, will put an end to the campaign, so inopportune in the present circumstances, undertaken by the…
The Little Return
POLITICS
The Little Return
The finance committee resumed its work yesterday. It broke off again almost at once, pending further information on the matters referred to it. But the summoning of its members brought a little life back to the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes, which had dozed off again on the cut laurels of the defenders of the small courts. People chatted, which, among parliamentarians, is called exchanging views. The opposition to the government still seems fairly peaceable. Neither on the question…
Assassination of a French NCO in the Rhineland
: "Le Figaro Artistique Illustré", ro " of the United States and Argentina, etc.
EXCHANGE RATES IN PARIS: .... 35 51 The Pound is worth...... 172, 90 .... 6, 86 The Lira -...... 1, 34 .... 0, 96 The Peseta -...... 5 36 in Doll 4, 85. In Rome, the Dollar is worth in Lire 26 17 - 4, 85 - the Pound - 128, 75
…ector of Politics: François COTY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Assassination of a French NCO in the Rhineland
Context
Why the editorial pointed to Italy's neutrality in 1914
The editorial answers Stresemann's attempt to clear Germany of war guilt with one precedent: the decision Italy took at the start of the war, while still formally allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Triple Alliance of 1882 was a defensive military alliance. When Austria-Hungary went to war in August 1914, Italy proclaimed its neutrality because it considered Austria-Hungary the aggressor. For Le Figaro, that judgment by an ally counted as "decisive testimony" against German innocence. The Italian reasoning is well documented, but the paper treats it as more than it was. Rome was ruling on whether the treaty's defensive terms applied, and it later entered the war only after parallel negotiations with both the Triple Alliance and the Entente. Italy's choice was a diplomatic position taken by an interested party, not an impartial verdict on German responsibility, even though the editorial presents it as one.
What "the present circumstances" meant in early October 1926
The editorial calls Stresemann's campaign "so inopportune in the present circumstances" without spelling those circumstances out in the readable excerpt. They were recent and dramatic. On 10 September 1926 Germany was admitted to the League of Nations. A week later, on 17 September, Stresemann and the French foreign minister Aristide Briand met privately at the village of Thoiry, near Geneva, to discuss a general settlement of claims left by the First World War. Against that background, a French paper wary of reconciliation could present a German push to reopen the war-guilt question as a threat to the fragile détente, and also as a reason for French readers to distrust it.
Why a killing in the Rhineland weighed on the evacuation question
The excerpt read here contains only the headline announcing the assassination of a French non-commissioned officer in the Rhineland, so it does not give the circumstances of the killing. Its importance lay in timing. At Thoiry, Briand agreed to bring an early end to the military control and occupation of the Rhineland and to return the Saar Basin to Germany ahead of schedule. The scope of those resolutions was soon cut back after objections from both the German and French governments, and the meeting came to be seen as a missed chance because neither statesman could carry domestic opinion with him. A violent death of a French soldier on occupied German soil could give French opponents of early evacuation a concrete argument at the very moment the Thoiry bargain was being debated.
How the franc linked French finances to the Thoiry talks
The same front page prints a Paris exchange table, in which the pound is quoted at 172.90 francs, and Vonoven's column records the finance committee's brief return to work. These details connect to the diplomacy of the moment. At Thoiry, Stresemann pledged material support to stabilize the French franc in return for Briand's concessions on the Saar and the Rhineland. A weak franc was therefore a reason France might accept a deal with Germany, and Le Figaro's hostility to Stresemann's war-guilt campaign sat alongside daily evidence of the currency pressure that made such a bargain tempting. Vonoven's picture of a calm opposition is the columnist's own reading of the mood among deputies.
Original
Verdict historique
malentendu informulé persistait entre eux, les patients et les immuables se préparant au grand isolement de l'hiver, et nous qui, sur l'invite de l'automne, retournions vers le bruit des villes, les affaires, le monde, les rêves, les passions... Camille Mauclair. Verdict historique M. Stresemann continue. M. Stresemann a tort. Pour ruiner sa prétention d'innocenter son pays, il suffit d'invoquer la résolution prise au début de la guerre par l'Italie, alors alliée de l'Allemagne et de l'Autriche. Ce témoignage d'une portée décisive mettra fin à la campagne, si inopportune dans les circonstances présentes, entreprise par le
La petite rentrée
LA POLITIQUE La petite rentrée La commission des finances a repris hier ses travaux. Elle les a presque aussitôt cessés, pour de plus amples informés sur les sujets dont elle est saisie. Mais la convocation de ses membres a rendu un peu d'animation à la salle des Quatre-Colonnes, qui s'était rendormie sur les lauriers coupés des défenseurs de petits tribunaux. On a bavardé, ce qui, entre parlementaires, s'appelle échanger des vues. L'opposition au gouvernement paraît encore assez paisible. Ni sur la question
Assassinat d'un sous-officier français en Rhénanie
: " Le Figaro Artistique Illustré ", ro " des États-Unis et de l'Argentine, etc. TABLEAU DES CHANGES A PARIS:.... 35 51 La Livre vaut...... 172, 90.... 6, 86 La Lire -...... 1, 34.... 0, 96 La Peseta -...... 5 36 en Doll 4, 85 A Rome, la Dollar vaut en Lire 26 17 - 4, 85 - la Livre - 128, 75 ur Politique: François COTY LES AFFAIRES EXTERIEURES Assassinat d'un sous-officier français en Rhénanie