Le Petit Matin
- The Political Balance Sheet
- The Chamber Finance Commission Resumed Its Work Yesterday
- The First Pan-European Congress in Vienna
This Tunis daily's front page of 5 October 1926 opened with Marcel Huart's gloomy column on French party politics, which said the Cartel des Gauches had gone bankrupt. As parliament prepared to return, he showed the Radicals, the Socialists and the Republican Socialists quarrelling over discipline and ministerial participation while a public tired of broken promises looked on. A Paris dispatch reported the Chamber Finance Commission back at work on the 1927 budget. The government's spending booklets still left out the cost of administrative and judicial reforms, and the commission chairman, Henry Simon, was to ask the premier for clarification. A Vienna dispatch described the opening of the first Pan-European Congress, with Mgr Seipel's speech, the new flag, an answer to Austrian pan-Germans who raised Anschluss, and an ovation for Joseph Wirth. Short items on the Beaujolais harvest and a speech by Curtius at Cologne broke off where the page was cut.
Translation
The Political Balance Sheet
FOURTH YEAR No. 1302. OUR OFFICES: MANAGEMENT – EDITORIAL – ADMINISTRATION: 4, Rue de Bretagne – TUNIS; 5, boul. Montmartre – PARIS. Telephone: Management 20-94; Administration and Editorial 12.19. Telegrams: Simatin – Tunis. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Tunisia – Constantine: 3 months ... Fr. 17; 6 months ... [?]; 1 year ... [?]. Le P DAILY
The Political Balance Sheet, by Marcel HUART
While awaiting the imminent resumption of parliamentary life, the parties are stirring. Some are about to hold their annual congresses, such as the French Republican Socialists at Lille and the Radical-Socialists at Bordeaux. For their part, the Socialists, at the urging of some of their elected members, will probably ask a new Congress to rule once more on the irritating question of ministerial participation.
The fact is that in these hours of economic anguish, when those who hold the reins of the State are striving to defend the Country against the threat of bankruptcy, all the parties are going through the same crisis; their elected members are applying themselves to adapting to the necessities and contingencies of politics. Under the stern eye of their rank and file, they no longer know which discipline to follow. Hence the suspicions, the accusations of treason, the warnings of oversight and of excommunication, which today not even the best-known Radicals and Socialists escape within their respective organizations.
On every side, as we can see, the political groupings are getting ready to wash their dirty linen noisily, in a great flood of vehement eloquence and "coram populo." What profit will the Republic draw from it? Already the Cartel des Gauches is officially denounced as an expired contract, fallen into disuse; it is a little like Sully-Prudhomme's vase: Do not touch it, it is broken. But who is responsible for the crack through which the parties' confidence has drained away? On that point there will be passionate, if not furious, polemics, by pen and by speech; they will accuse one another; they will reproach each other for the mistakes committed, without a thought for the reactionary gallery that will roar with laughter at the spectacle of our fratricidal discords. And to whose benefit? Not to that of democracy, assuredly. The Country does not understand, and certainly will not understand—the republican Country, which wanted union, collaboration, the intimate, fraternal and fruitful communion of all the forces […] -tion hails, not the death, but the bankruptcy of the Cartel.
It is amid this murky atmosphere, among these rumors of internal battles, that events abroad unfold, together with those that concern us more directly; but public opinion seems to greet them with indifference, so weary is it of promises never kept, of prospects of restoration, renewal and peace that are always shut off at the psychological moment when our dearest wishes ought to become realities. So true is it, as the poet said, that the happiness the hand cannot reach is only a dream, and human beings do not forgive those who lead them on and lead them about in the field of illusions, of dreams that vanish like a rocket of chimeras.
The ministerial crisis drags on in Greece! But will Édouard Herriot remain president of the Radical-Socialist Party after the Bordeaux Congress? Sir Austen Chamberlain and Signor Mussolini talked cordially at Livorno about the problems that concern Italy and England; but will Paul Boncour not be disavowed by the Executive Committee of the Second International? In Germany, Stresemann comments in his own way on the Thoiry talks; but will the attitude of Pierre Renaudel and his participationist friends not provoke a new split in the Socialist Party? The miners' strike drags on in England; but will the Poincaré-Briand-Herriot Cabinet hold out against the opposition that is taking shape and the interpellations that are being announced?
Such are the preoccupations of the moment. But they remain without substance; people talk about them in a desultory way, not without a certain levity, as if the interests of the Country were not at stake, as if it mattered little whether this or that solution came about. A strange phase in the life of a people so painfully, so cruelly tried by the war, and in whom the sense of the ideal and practical sense alike seem to have been abolished! The war, which turned everything upside down, has not [?]
The Chamber Finance Commission Resumed Its Work Yesterday
TWENTY CENTIMES …tit Ma… NEWS … RA…
The Chamber Finance Commission Resumed Its Work Yesterday
PARIS, October 4. – The Finance Commission of the Chamber, convened by its chairman Henry Simon, met this afternoon to resume the work suspended during the recess. The general rapporteur, M. de Chappedelaine, was also present at the sitting.
The main purpose of the Commission is to settle the programme of work for subsequent sittings. During the recess the President of the Council, Minister of Finance, had booklets distributed to the members of the Commission containing the spending proposals of the various ministers. However, the statements contained in these booklets bear no trace of the budgetary consequences that the administrative and judicial reforms now being carried out will have.
In distributing these booklets, the Government informed the Commission that it would shortly transmit a corrective figure corresponding to the impact of the reforms. The Commission can in any case begin examining the expenditure of each Ministry with the chapters that will not be modified later. That is a procedure the Commission is going to settle today. So far, moreover, the number of members who have answered the summons is very small.
⁂
The Finance Commission of the Chamber, meeting under the chairmanship of M. Henry Simon, held an exchange of views on the examination of the 1927 budget. Following this exchange of views, the Commission instructed its Chairman to ask the President of the Council for details concerning the presentation of the 1927 budget and the effects on it of the recent measures taken by the Government. Tomorrow, Tuesday, it will take up the Agriculture budget. M. Henry Simon will be received in the morning by the President of the Council, and will thus be in a position, at the start of the afternoon sitting, to inform the Commission of the Government's answer on the points it has raised.
Grape harvest and Prohibition...
LYON, October 4. – The grape harvest is in full swing. In the Beaujolais generally, it will be scant but of superior quality. [?] reports the presence in the vineyard
The First Pan-European Congress in Vienna
…atin …ONS RAPIDES
The First Pan-European Congress in Vienna
VIENNA, October 4. – The first Pan-European Congress, organized by Count [?] Kalergi, whose honorary presidents are MM. Beneš, Seipel, Caillaux, Sforza, Politis and Loebe, opened this morning in Vienna.
MGR SEIPEL
The former Chancellor of Austria, Mgr Seipel, delivered the opening speech.
The chief members of the French delegation are M. Yvon Delbos, former Minister of Public Instruction, and M. Delaisi, the well-known economist.
M. Briand had sent a telegram in which he said he regretted being unable to make the journey to Vienna.
On the occasion of the Congress, the Pan-European flag was inaugurated, made of [?] of the Pan-Europeans: a red cross on a blazing golden sun in a blue sky in which 28 stripes symbolize the 28 States of Europe.
The group of Austrian pan-Germanists had seen fit to raise, in writing, the question of Austria's union with Germany; the President replied that the Congress, taking its stand on the general lowering of European frontiers through arbitration treaties, customs agreements and the protection of minorities, had no business taking up territorial problems, and that, not being an official organization, it could not set itself the task of resolving European questions in a spirit of peace, justice and collaboration.
During the afternoon sitting, M. Politis and the former German Chancellor Wirth spoke. The latter was given an ovation by the congress members.
The German Economy
DR CURTIUS SPEAKS AT COLOGNE
COLOGNE, October 4. – Dr Curtius, Minister of Public Economy, today gave the Congress of the People's Party a general account of German economic policy.
"Through appropriate commercial activity," he said, "Germany has constantly ga –"
Context
Why Huart Called the Cartel des Gauches Bankrupt
The Cartel des Gauches was the left-wing alliance that won the general elections of 1924 (and again in 1932). Its 1924 majority was led by Édouard Herriot and broke up in 1926, when the SFIO moved into opposition. What replaced it was Raymond Poincaré's government, made up of the parties of the old Bloc National plus the Radical-Socialists. That reshuffle explains Huart's alarm. Herriot, who had led the Cartel, now sat in what the column calls the "Poincaré-Briand-Herriot Cabinet". Meanwhile the Socialists who had sustained the Cartel stood outside the government and were once again arguing over whether socialists should take ministerial posts at all. Huart's questions about Herriot's future at the Radical congress in Bordeaux and about Pierre Renaudel's "participationists" splitting the Socialist Party are the newspaper's own reading of the party quarrels of autumn 1926.
The Financial Emergency Behind the 1927 Budget Talks
The Finance Commission's meeting took place in the aftermath of a currency crisis. Capital flight and France's failure to collect German reparations had produced a monetary crisis, and that crisis led to a new government under the centre-right Raymond Poincaré. Once that government was formed, the crisis ended. Poincaré's third premiership ran from 1926 to 1929. The article notes that he combined the premiership with the Finance Ministry, and it is the paper that reports that over the summer he circulated departmental spending proposals to the commission. The paper also says the figures left out the costs of administrative and judicial reforms still under way, and that the government had promised a corrective figure. Poincaré knew this machinery well, since early in his career he had sat on the Chamber's budget commissions of 1890–1891 and 1892. The commission's request for details on how the 1927 budget would be presented, and Henry Simon's planned audience with the premier, therefore belong to a moment when the cabinet's financial authority was high. Huart's column on the same page still speaks of a country threatened with bankruptcy.
Who Stood Behind the Vienna Pan-European Congress
The congress grew out of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's 1923 book Pan-Europa, which carried a membership form for the movement. The first congress, held in Vienna in 1926, drew 2,000 delegates, who elected Coudenhove-Kalergi president of the Central Council, a post he kept until his death in 1972. Several of the honorary presidents the article lists were already tied to his campaign. Ignaz Seipel had accepted the presidency of the movement's Austrian branch, which helps explain why the former chancellor gave the opening speech. Carlo Sforza was among the politicians who supported the idea. Aristide Briand, who according to the dispatch only sent a telegram regretting his absence, was elected honorary president of the movement the following year, in 1927. The dispatch's account of the reply to the Austrian pan-Germanists on union with Germany, and its description of a flag with 28 stripes, are the newspaper's report of the proceedings.
Original
Le Bilan Politique
QUATRIÈME ANNÉE N ° 1302 NOS BUREAUX: DIRECTION - REDACTION ADMINISTRATION 4, Rue de Bretagne - TUNIS 5, boul. Montmartre - PARIS Direction: 20-94 Téléphone Administration et Rédaction: 12. 19 Télégrammes: Simatin - Tunis ABONNEMENTS: Tunisie - Constantine 3 mois................. Fr. 17» 6 mois................. [?]» 1 an................... [?]» Le P QUOTIDIEN Le Bilan Politique par Marcel HUART En attendant la reprise prochaine de la vie parlementaire, les partis s'agitent. D'aucuns vont tenir leurs assises annuelles, tels les républicains socialistes français à Lille, et les radicaux-socialistes à Bordeaux. De leur côté, les socialistes, sous l'impulsion d'une partie de leurs élus, demanderont vraisemblablement à un nouveau Congrès de se prononcer une fois de plus sur l'irritante question de la participation ministérielle. C'est que, en ces heures d'angoisse économique, où ceux qui tiennent les rênes de l'Etat s'évertuent à défendre le Pays contre les menaces de banqueroute; tous les partis subissent la même crise; leurs élus s'appliquent à s'adapter aux nécessités et aux contingences de la politique. Sous l'œil sévère de leurs troupes ils ne savent plus à quelle discipline se vouer. De là des suspicions, des reproches de trahison, des avertissements de contrôle et d'excommunication, auxquels n'échappent pas aujourd'hui les radicaux et les socialistes les plus notoires dans le cadre de leurs organisations respectives. De toutes parts, on le voit, les groupements politiques s'apprêtent à laver leur linge sale bruyamment, à grand flot d'éloquence véhémente et «coram populo». Quel profit en tirera la République? Déjà le Cartel des Gauches est officiellement dénoncé comme un contrat périmé, tombé en désuétude; c'est un peu comme le vase de Sully-Prudhomme: N'y touchez pas, il est brisé. Mais qui est responsable de la fêlure par où s'en est allée la confiance des partis? Là-dessus on va polémiquer avec passion, sinon avec rage, par la plume et par la parole; on s'accusera mutuellement; on se reprochera réciproquement les fautes commises sans se soucier de la galerie réactionnaire qui s'esclaffera au spectacle de nos discordes fratricides. Et ce, au bénéfice de qui? Pas à celui de la démocratie, assurément. Le Pays ne comprend pas, ne comprendra pas certainement, le Pays républicain qui a voulu l'union, la collaboration, la communion intime, fraternelle et féconde de toutes les forces tion salue-t-elle, non pas la mort, mais la faillite du Cartel. C'est au milieu de cette atmosphère trouble, parmi ces rumeurs de batailles intestines, que se déroulent les événements du dehors et ceux qui nous intéressent plus directement; mais il semble que l'opinion les accueille avec indifférence, tant elle est lasse de promesses jamais tenues, des perspectives de restauration, de rénovation et de paix toujours fermées à l'heure psychologique où les plus chers désirs devraient devenir des réalités. Tant il est vrai, comme a dit le poète, que le bonheur que la main n'atteint pas n'est qu'un rêve et les humains ne pardonnent pas à qui les mènent et les promènent au champ des illusions, des rêves qui s'évanouissent en fusée de chimères. La crise ministérielle se prolonge en Grèce! Mais Edouard Herriot restera-til président du Parti radical-socialiste, après le Congrès de Bordeaux? Sir Austen Chamberlain et M. Mussolini se sont entretenus cordialement à Livourne, des problèmes qui intéressent l'Italie et l'Angleterre; mais Paul Boncour ne va-t-il pas être désavoué par le Comité exécutif de la IIe Internationale? En Allemagne, Stresemann commente à sa façon les entretiens de Thoiry; mais l'attitude de Pierre Renaudel et de ses amis participationnistes ne va-telle pas provoquer une nouvelle scission du parti socialiste? La grève des mineurs se prolonge en Angleterre; mais le Cabinet PoincaréBriand-Herriot tiendra-t-il devant l'opposition qui se dessine et les interpellations qui s'annoncent? Telles sont les préoccupations du moment. Mais elles demeurent sans consistance; on en parle à bâtons rompus, non sans quelque légèreté, comme si les intérêts du Pays n'étaient pas en jeu, comme s'il importait peu que telle ou telle solution intervienne. Singulière phase de la vie d'un peuple si douloureusement, si cruellement éprouvé par la guerre, et en qui le sens de l'idéal et le sens pratique, tout à la fois, semblent abolis! La guerre, qui a tout bouleversé, n'a [?]
La Commission des Finances de la Chambre a repris hier ses travaux
VINGT CENTIMES tit Ma E D'INFORMATIONS RA La Commission des Finances de la Chambre a repris hier ses travaux PARIS, 4 octobre. - La Commission des Finances de la Chambre, convoquée par le président Henry Simon, s'est réunie cet après-midi pour reprendre les travaux suspendus pendant les vacances. Le rapporteur général, M. de Chappedelaine, était également présent à la séance. La Commission a surtout pour objet de régler le programme du travail pour les séances ultérieures. Durant les vacances le Président du Conseil, Ministre des Finances, fit distribuer aux membres de la Commission des fascicules contenant les propositions des dépenses des différents ministres. Toutefois les états que comportent ces fascicules ne contiennent pas trace des conséquences budgétaires que devront avoir les réformes administratives et judiciaires actuellement en cours d'exécution. Le Gouvernement en faisant distribuer ces fascicules, a prévenu la Commission qu'il transmettrait prochainement un chiffre rectificatif correspondant à la répercussion des réformes. La Commission pourra toujours commencer l'étude des dépenses dans chaque Ministère par les chapitres qui ne seront pas modifiés ultérieurement. C'est une manière de procéder que la Commission va régler aujourd'hui. Jusqu'à présent d'ailleurs le nombre des membres s'étant rendus à la convocation est très peu élevé. ⁂ La Commission des Finances de la Chambre réunie sous la présidence de M. Henry Simon a procédé à un échange de vues concernant l'examen du budget de 1927. A la suite de cet échange de vues la Commission chargea son Président de demander au Président du Conseil des précisions relatives à la présentation du budget de 1927 et aux répercussions de ce dernier des récentes mesures prises par le Gouvernement. Elle abordera demain mardi le budget de l'Agriculture. M. Henry Simon sera reçu dans la matinée par le Président du Conseil, et sera ainsi en mesure, au début de la séance de l'aprèsmidi, de faire connaître à la Commission la réponse du Gouvernement sur les points qu'elle a soulevés. Vendanges et régime sec... LYON, 4 octobre. - La vendange bat son plein. Dans le Beaujolais en général, elle sera peu abondante, mais de qualité supérieure. [?] signale la présence dans le vignoble
Le premier Congrès pan-européen à Vienne
atin ONS RAPIDES Le premier Congrès pan-européen à Vienne VIENNE, 4 octobre. - Le premier Congrès pan-européen, organisé par le comte [?] Kalergi, et dont les présidents d'honneur sont MM. Bénès, Seipel, Caillaux, Sforza, Politis et Loebe, s'est ouvert ce matin à Vienne. Mgr SEIPEL L'ancien Chancelier d'Autriche, Mgr Seipel, prononce le discours d'ouverture. Les principaux membres de la délégation française sont MM. Yvon Delbos, ancien Ministre de l'Instruction Publique, et Delaisi, l'économiste bien connu. M. Briand avait envoyé un télégramme où il déclarait regretter ne pouvoir faire le voyage de Vienne. A l'occasion du Congrès fut inauguré le drapeau pan-européen, fait de [?] des pan-européens: une croix rouge sur un soleil d'or flamboyant dans un ciel bleu où 28 bandes symbolisent les 28 Etats d'Europe. Le groupe des pangermanistes autrichiens avait cru devoir soulever, par écrit, la question du rattachement de l'Autriche à l'Allemagne; le Président a répondu que le Congrès, se plaçant sur le terrain de l'abaissement général des frontières européennes par les traités d'arbitrage, accords douaniers et la protection des minorités, n'avait pas à aborder les problèmes territoriaux, et que, n'étant pas une organisation officielle, il ne pouvait pas se donner la tâche de résoudre les questions européennes dans un esprit de paix, de justice et de collaboration. Au cours de la séance de l'après-midi MM. Politis et l'ex-Chancelier Allemand Wirth ont pris la parole. Ce dernier a été l'objet d'une ovation de la part des congressistes. L'économie allemande LE Dr CURTIUS PARLE A COLOGNE COLOGNE, 4 octobre. - Le docteur Curtius, ministre de l'économie publique, a fait aujourd'hui au Congrès du parti populiste un exposé général de la politique économique allemande. - Par une activité commerciale appropriée, a-t-il dit, l'Allemagne a constamment ga -