L’Écho d’Alger
- Cabinet Council
- For Foreigners Residing in France
- Our Debt to America
L'Écho d'Alger's front page of 7 October 1926 carried Paris dispatches dated the previous day. A Cabinet Council chaired by Poincaré at the Finance Ministry dealt with routine business and the reopening of the Chambers, whose date was left open, and took up the high cost of living, especially the price of wheat. The Interior Minister sent the prefects a circular warning that French liberties did not entitle foreigners to bring their home countries' political conflicts into France or disturb public order. An opinion extract from Le Quotidien explained how Poincaré planned to ratify the American debt accords: a preamble would let Parliament hint at further US undertakings on transfer and on commercialization of the debt.
Translation
Cabinet Council
THE MINISTERS CONCERNED THEMSELVES WITH THE QUESTION OF THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
Paris, October 6. – The ministers met in Cabinet Council at the Ministry of Finance, under the chairmanship of M. Poincaré. The Council, which lasted from 10 o'clock until half past twelve, was devoted to the dispatch of current business. The ministers chiefly concerned themselves with the conditions under which the Chambers will reconvene and with the order of business of the two Assemblies. The date of the reconvening has not been fixed. The ministers also concerned themselves with the question of the high cost of living, notably the price of wheat and of co- [?]
For Foreigners Residing in France
IMPORTANT CIRCULAR FROM THE MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR
Paris, October 6. – The Minister of the Interior has just sent the following circular to the Prefects:
“Previous instructions from my department have defined the obligations that respect for the laws of French hospitality imposes on foreigners residing on our territory.
“The circular of April 27, 1926, in particular, recalled that these foreigners must loyally refrain from any attempt at agitation liable to disturb the public peace.
“The liberties established and guaranteed by our legislation cannot have the effect of allowing foreigners to carry over onto our territory the political struggles and conflicts of their respective countries, and thereby to undermine general tranquillity through acts of violence or provocative demonstrations.
“Foreigners who receive the most benevolent welcome in France all have the imperative duty to conform to the principles of public order [?]
Our Debt to America
Opinions and Commentaries
From LE QUOTIDIEN (M. Pierre Hainé)
The procedure envisaged by the Government for ratifying the accords
It even emerges from the statements reported by M. Henry Simon, and from the information we have been able to gather, that M. Poincaré has already envisaged the procedure by which ratification of the accords would be pursued, and by which a transfer clause and a clause against commercialization of the debt by the United States Government would be introduced into those accords. The texts of agreements and treaties cannot, constitutionally, be amended by a law. Parliament, as is well known, can only approve or reject them. But by incorporating certain recitals in a preamble, the Premier wants to put Parliament in a position to express [?] in which the United States may find the suggestion of a supplementary undertaking. M. Poincaré told M. Henry Simon that this undertaking could take the form of letters exchanged between the governments of France [?]
Context
Why the American debt accord was so contested in France
The opinion extract deals with the Mellon–Bérenger accord on France's war debt to the United States, which met strong hostility in France: 20,000 war veterans demonstrated in Paris against the agreement. One central grievance was linkage. France wanted its payments to the United States tied to the reparations it received from Germany, but the United States would not accept that link. The transfer clause and the clause against commercialization of the debt that Le Quotidien attributes to Poincaré's plans reflect the same wish for safeguards, although the article reports only the government's intentions, not any American response. How contested the accord remained is shown by the outcome: the French Chamber of Deputies ratified the 1926 agreement only on 21 July 1929, after an all-night session, by the narrow margin of 300 votes to 292.
Poincaré's planned preamble, as seen from the US embassy
The column's key argument is that Parliament can only approve or reject a treaty, so Poincaré meant to leave the accord's text untouched and attach a preamble expressing Parliament's views. An American diplomatic telegram sent from Paris on 7 October 1926, the date of this issue, describes the same plan. The chargé d'affaires Whitehouse reported that Poincaré had not yet reached the point where he would jam the Mellon–Bérenger agreement through as it stood, without reserves. He added that Poincaré was preparing for ratification with reservations in some form during November, and judged that everything would depend on the form adopted. Whitehouse had also been told that Poincaré read a draft preamble to the Belgian financial expert Émile Francqui, who found it very complicated and not easy to understand. The November timetable was not met: the Chamber ratified the accord only in July 1929.
The circular on foreigners and the Italian anti-fascist exiles
The Interior Minister's circular names no nationality. It speaks generally of foreigners carrying their home countries' political struggles onto French soil and recalls an earlier circular of 27 April 1926. It was issued a few weeks after a dramatic event: on 11 September 1926 the anarchist Gino Lucetti threw a bomb at Mussolini's car in Rome, an unsuccessful assassination attempt whose plot, according to a later anarchist account, was hatched in anti-fascist Italian exile circles in the south of France. The newspaper does not make this connection, and the wording of the circular alone does not prove that the attack caused it. The Italian exile community in France was about to grow. After the march on Rome and the 'fascistissime' laws of November 1926, many political opponents, the fuorusciti, sought refuge in Switzerland, but few stayed there because of the pull of Paris, where the Concentration antifasciste, a cartel of anti-fascist parties and unions, was founded in 1927. France was not alone in demanding restraint: in December 1926 the Swiss head of the Political Department, Giuseppe Motta, stated that refugees must abstain from all political activity.
The high cost of living in Poincaré's financial recovery
The Cabinet's concern with wheat prices came less than three months after Poincaré took office. On 21 July 1926, with the pound at a record 235 francs, President Gaston Doumergue called on Poincaré to form a cabinet, and on a single day, 3 August 1926, Poincaré had the Chamber of Deputies adopt a major package of fiscal measures. A popular history credits the recovery with rising tax receipts while consumer prices tended to fall, partly because of the franc's revaluation. The Cabinet report shows that in early October the price of basic goods was still a political worry for the government. The currency question was also unresolved: in his telegram of 7 October, Whitehouse reported that Poincaré was not yet ready to stabilize the franc. The legal settlement came only on 25 June 1928, when the government devalued the franc by four fifths of its value.
Original
Conseil de Cabinet
Conseil de Cabinet LES MINISTRES SE SONT PREOCCUPES DE LA QUESTION DE LA VIE CHERE Paris, 6 octobre. - Les ministres se sont réunis en Conseil de Cabinet au ministère des Finances, sous la présidence de M. Poincaré. Le Conseil, qui a duré de 10 heures à midi et demi a été consacré à l'expédition des affaires courantes. Les ministres se sont surtout préoccupés des conditions dans lesquelles se fera la rentrée des Chambres et l'ordre des travaux des deux Assemblées. La date de la rentrée n'a pas été fixée. Les ministres se sont également préoccupés de la question de la vie chère, notamment du prix du blé et du char - [?]
Pour les étrangers résidant en France
Pour les étrangers résidant en France IMPORTANTE CIRCULAIRE DU MINISTRE DE L'INTERIEUR Paris, 6 octobre. - Le Ministre de l'Intérieur vient d'adresser aux Préfets la circulaire suivante: «Les instructions antérieures de mon département ont déterminé les obligations qu'impose aux étrangers résidant sur notre territoire le respect des lois de l'hospitalité française. «La circulaire du 27 avril 1926 a, notamment, rappelé que ces étrangers devaient, loyalement, s'abstenir de toute tentative d'agitation susceptible de troubler la paix publique. «Les libertés instituées et garanties par notre législation ne peuvent avoir pour effet de permettre à des étrangers de transporter sur notre territoire les luttes et les conflits politiques de leurs pays respectifs et porter ainsi atteinte à la tranquillité générale par des initiatives de violence ou des manifestations de provocation. «Les étrangers qui reçoivent en France, l'accueil le plus bienveillant ont tous l'impérieux devoir de se conformer aux principes de l'ordre public [?]
Notre dette envers l'Amérique
Notre dette envers l'Amérique Opinions et commentaires Du QUOTIDIEN (M. Pierre Hainé) La procédure envisagée par le Gouvernement pour la ratification des accords Il ressort même des déclarations rapportées par M. Henry Simon et des renseignements que nous avons pu recueillir que M. Poincaré a déjà envisagé la procédure par laquelle seraient poursuivie la ratification des accords et introduites dans ces accords une clause de transfert et une clause de non commercialisation de la dette par le Gouvernement des Etats-Unis. Les textes d'accords et de traités ne peuvent pas, constitutionnellement, être modifiés par une loi. Le Parlement ne peut, on le sait, que les approuver ou les rejeter. Mais, en incorporant dans un préambule certains considérants, le président du Conseil veut mettre le Parlement en mesure d'exprimer des [?] où les Etats-Unis peuvent trouver la suggestion d'un engagement complémentaire. M. Poincaré a déclaré à M. Henry Simon que cet engagement pourrait prendre la forme de lettres échangées entre les gouvernements de la France [?]