L’Écho d’Alger
- Against the High Cost of Living
- For a Franco-German Policy
- Our Debt to America
This front page of L'Écho d'Alger for 10 October 1926 paired a Paris report on the fight against high prices with a digest of metropolitan opinion. The retail price commission at the Paris Prefecture of Police summoned traders who had resold peppers and peaches far above cost, heard that 2,600,000 kilos of butter and 18 million eggs sat in cold storage, and received tallies of citations, warnings, penalties on street vendors and speculation cases. Henry de Jouvenel, quoted from Le Matin, argued that any Franco-German rapprochement should be paid for with German security guarantees in the East, toward Poland and Austria. Jacques Bainville and César Chabrun, quoted from L'Action française and L'Œuvre, attacked Washington's demand that France ratify its war-debt agreement without reservations; Chabrun proposed an arbitration procedure on France's capacity to pay.
Translation
Against the High Cost of Living
Against the high cost of living
AT THE RETAIL PRICE MONITORING COMMISSION
Paris, 9 October. – The retail price monitoring commission, meeting this morning at the Prefecture of Police under the chairmanship of M. Morain, summoned before it a number of shopkeepers and vendors who had charged excessive prices for basic necessities, notably selling peppers bought at 4 francs a kilo for 28 francs, and peaches bought at 14 francs for 24 francs.
One of the members drew the commission's attention to the trade carried on by certain people who hold stalls at the Halles market and pass those places on to others for payment.
M. Lavayssé, head of the Fraud Service at the Prefecture of Police, reported that there are at present 2,600,000 kilos of butter and 18 million eggs stored in cold stores in the Paris region. The Prefecture of Police service will have to make sure that these goods, when they leave storage, are sold at normal prices.
M. Lavayssé reported that since the beginning of the year 312 citations have been issued for failure to display selling prices: 90 for basic necessities, 37 for petrol and 184 for miscellaneous products; in addition, 457 warnings have been given. 367 disciplinary penalties, ranging from temporary to permanent withdrawal of the [?], have been imposed on costermongers since 1 September; 153 shopkeepers or vendors have been reported to the commission for various offences; 222 warnings have been given and 4 reports drawn up for failure to apply the two-dish rule in certain restaurants. Finally, 25 cases of speculation in wheat, flour, butter, etc., have been referred to the public prosecutors' offices.
M. Guichard then reported the latest results of the inquiry the commission had requested into the profits taken by each intermediary from producer to consumer. It is noted, for example, that for 100 francs' worth of mackerel bought by a customer, 20 francs 30 goes to the fishermen, 33 fr. 90 to the shipper, 19 fr.
For a Franco-German Policy
For a Franco-German policy
THE GUARANTEES IT MUST PROVIDE
From Le Matin (Henry de Jouvenel):
Since the concessions expected of us can be offset neither by financial gains nor by gains in disarmament, let us negotiate, but on other foundations.
M. Stresemann said the other day that Franco-German reconciliation was the condition of European peace. It is therefore with that peace in view, and for its sake, that we are going to collaborate, despite our memories. Now, that peace does not require that Germany, relieved of all worries in the West, should be free to create worries for others in the East of Europe; it requires, indeed, exactly the opposite.
A Franco-German policy therefore has some chance of succeeding only if Germany is prepared to offer in the East — notably through an economic understanding with Poland and through commitments regarding Austria — guarantees of general security at least equivalent to those we have had to take upon ourselves on her western frontier.
By putting the question in this way, France would certainly show her disinterestedness, since she would ask nothing for herself in exchange for privileges that are above all her own; but she would also show her realism, for the danger today is no longer on the Rhine: it lies in the insecurity of Poland, in the precariousness of Austria, in the fire smouldering in Hungary, in the unrest that the German minorities may stir up within the new States of Central Europe.
THE HIGH COMMISSIONERSHIP IN SYRIA
AN ARTICLE IN THE “TIMES”
London, 9 October. – The Times, commenting on the departure of M. Henri Ponsot, the new High Commissioner in Syria, writes:
Our Debt to America
Our debt to America
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SEES ONLY ONE THING: RATIFICATION OF THE COMMITMENT MADE BY FRANCE
From L'ACTION FRANÇAISE (J. Bainville)
Inflexible, determined not to move from the position they have taken, President Coolidge and Mr. Mellon declare that the French Parliament may vote all the reservations it wants and all the preambles it pleases; the American Government will take no account of them. Only one thing matters to it: ratification of France's commitment to pay the annuities it has fixed.
One would think it is a question of prestige for it, unless it wishes to keep over us, and over Europe in general, a means of pressure at once financial and political. That is above all what a claim of one State on another serves for; that is what our claim on Germany could have served for. As for the tribute itself, there is no use having illusions: it is paid only for as long as the creditor dominates the debtor, a situation that rarely lasts sixty-two years.
THE UNITED STATES SHOULD ESTABLISH AN ARBITRATION PROCEDURE ON FRANCE'S CAPACITY TO PAY
From L'ŒUVRE (César Chabrun)
It is accepted in international law that claims between States do not justify hostile measures. We know only too well how, in times of crisis, the rules of international law can be disregarded. Let us not tempt the devil: no doubt the Americans want to be paid, but they desire still more ardently that the peace of the world should not be disturbed.
Can we not ask them to be consistent with their peaceful intent and to avoid any threat by establishing in advance an arbitration procedure on their debtor's capacity to pay? When France judged that she could not meet a payment, if the United States raised an objection, the matter would go before a tribunal — which one? The Hague Court, perhaps. Better a tribunal composed of arbitrators appointed by the parties: one French arbitrator and one American arbitrator, each choosing another arbitrator, the panel being presided over by a fifth arbitrator chosen by common agreement.
The idea of having capacity to pay arbitrated has already been put forward in a learned article by M. Jean Lescure, professor at the Faculty of Law in Paris. I believe it is a fruitful one. France has no intention of abandoning her [?] loyal attitude; she has before her a loyal creditor. Nothing would be more honourable for both than to adopt a procedure that would guarantee the rule of equity in their mutual relations. But it is quite obvious that unilateral declarations would not suffice to establish this procedure; an amendment to the agreements is needed.
IN MOROCCO
THE SULTAN IS PLEASED WITH THE ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME HE RECEIVED IN MARRAKESH
Rabat, 8 October (delayed). – Sultan Moulay Youssef asked General Daugan to convey the expression of his keen satisfaction to the authorities of the French and European colonies as well as
Context
The Mellon–Bérenger debt agreement Coolidge wanted ratified
The “commitment made by France” that Bainville says Washington cared about was the Mellon–Bérenger agreement of 29 April 1926, which fixed the amount and rate of repayment of France's war debt to the United States. The French ambassador Henry Bérenger signed it subject to ratification by the French Parliament, which is why the columnists here argue over reservations that parliament might attach. The American Debt Commission said the settlement represented substantially France's capacity to pay, the very judgement César Chabrun wanted submitted to an arbitral tribunal. France had sought a clause tying its payments to German reparations, but the United States refused that linkage; Bainville's remark that a claim between states is above all a means of pressure, and his reference to “our claim on Germany”, reflect that grievance. Washington's leverage was concrete: while the debt question stayed unsettled it quietly blocked private and public loans to France, adding pressure on the franc. In France the agreement was deeply unpopular, and 20,000 war veterans demonstrated against it in Paris. Ratification by the French parliament was delayed until July 1929, and in the end little of the debt was repaid. The sixty-two-year horizon in Bainville's column is the payment period as he presents it.
Germany's League entry and the Thoiry bargain behind Jouvenel's column
Jouvenel wrote a month after Germany was admitted to the League of Nations on 10 September 1926 and given a permanent seat on the League Council, while Poland, its main rival for that position, received only a non-permanent seat. During the admission ceremonies Briand and Stresemann met in the French village of Thoiry. Stresemann pledged material support to stabilise the franc, and Briand agreed to return the Saar to Germany early and to bring an early end to military control and occupation of the Rhineland. That bargain is the most plausible reading of the column's opening: the “concessions expected of us” were French positions in the West, and “financial gains” were what Germany could offer in exchange. Jouvenel rejected money as adequate compensation and asked instead for German security guarantees in the East, through an economic understanding with Poland and commitments over Austria. The scope of the Thoiry resolutions was soon reduced after objections from both governments, and scholars often see the meeting as the peak and also the end point of the Locarno policy.
Henry de Jouvenel, lately High Commissioner in Syria
Henry de Jouvenel was a French journalist and statesman, and the page reprints his argument from Le Matin. He had served as French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon from 23 December 1925 until 23 June 1926, so this column appeared less than four months after he left that post. The same column of the page runs straight on into a London dispatch reporting The Times's comment on the departure of Henri Ponsot, whom the paper calls the new High Commissioner in Syria. Readers in Algiers therefore met Jouvenel's case for German guarantees to Poland and Austria next to news about the office he had just vacated, and his warnings about minorities and unstable new states in Central Europe came from someone who had recently run a French mandate administration in the Levant.
Why Bainville saw a state debt as an instrument of power
Jacques Bainville, quoted here from L'Action française, was a historian and journalist preoccupied with Franco-German relations and a leading figure in the monarchist Action française. He was best known for his criticism of the Treaty of Versailles in Les Conséquences politiques de la paix (1920), where he warned that the treaty left 40 million Frenchmen with 60 million Germans as debtors whose debt could not be liquidated for 30 years. The same reasoning runs through this column. Bainville holds that a tribute is paid only while the creditor dominates the debtor, and he treats both France's claim on Germany and America's claim on France as instruments of financial and political pressure. His suspicion that Washington wanted a lever over France and Europe thus applied to the war-debt quarrel the view of reparations he had set out six years earlier.
Original
Contre la vie chère
Contre la vie chère A LA COMMISSION DE SURVEILLANCE DES PRIX DE DETAIL Paris, 9 octobre. - La commission de surveillance des prix de détail, réunie ce matin à la Préfecture de police, sous la présidence de M. Morain, a fait comparaître devant elle un certain nombre de commerçants et de vendeurs qui avaient pratiqué des prix exagérés sur des denrées de première nécessité en vendant notamment des piments achetés 4 francs le kilo 28 francs, et des pêches achetées 14 francs, 24 francs. Un des membres a attiré l'attention de la commission sur le trafic auquel se livrent certaines personnes titulaires de places sur le marché des Halles, cédant ces places contre rémunération à d'autres personnes. M. Lavayssé chef du Service des fraudes à la Préfecture de police a fait connaître qu'il se trouve actuellement 2. 600. 000 kilos de beurre et 18 millions d'œufs entreposés dans des frigorifiques de la région parisienne. Le service de la Préfecture de police devra s'assurer que ces marchandises seront, à leur sortie, vendues à des prix normaux. M. Lavayssé a fait connaître que depuis le début de l'année 312 contraventions pour défaut d'affichage de prix de vente ont été dressées; 90 pour des produits de première nécessité; 37 pour de l'essence et 184 pour des produits divers; en outre, 457 avertissements ont été donnés. 367 peines disciplinaires, allant depuis la suppression temporaire jusqu'à la suppression définitive de la [?] ont été infligées à des marchands des quatre-saisons depuis le 1er septembre; 153 commerçants ou vendeurs ont été signalés à l'attention de la commission pour divers délits; 222 avertissements ont été donnés et 4 procès-verbaux dressés pour non application du régime des deux plats dans certains restaurants. Enfin, 25 affaires de spéculation sur les blés, farines, beurre, etc., ont été transmises aux Parquets. M. Guichard a fait connaître ensuite les nouveaux résultats concernant l'enquête demandée par la commission sur les bénéfices pris par chaque intermédiaire depuis le producteur jusqu'au consommateur. Il est signalé, par exemple, que pour 100 francs de maquereaux achetés par un client, 20 francs 30 reviennent aux pêcheurs, 33 fr. 90 à l'expéditeur, 19 fr.
Pour une politique franco-allemande
Pour une politique franco-allemande LES GARANTIES QU'ELLE DOIT DONNER Du Matin (Henry de Jouvenel): Puisque les abandons qu'on attend de nous ne peuvent être compensés ni par des bénéfices d'argent ni par des bénéfices de désarmement, négocions, mais sur d'autres bases. M. Stresemann a dit l'autre jour que la réconciliation franco-allemande était la condition de la paix européenne. C'est donc en vue de cette paix et pour elle que nous allons, malgré nos souvenirs, collaborer. Or, elle n'exige pas que délivrée de tous soucis à l'Ouest, l'Allemagne soit libre d'en créer aux autres à l'Est de l'Europe; elle exige même exactement le contraire. Une politique franco-allemande n'a donc quelques chances de réussir que si l'Allemagne est disposée à offrir à l'Est, notamment, par une entente économique avec la Pologne, par des engagements au sujet de l'Autriche, des garanties de sécurité générale au moins équivalentes à celles que nous avons dû prendre de nous-mêmes sur sa frontière Ouest. En posant ainsi la question, la France attesterait, certes, son désintéressement, puisqu'elle ne demanderait rien pour elle-même en échange de privilèges qui sont avant tout les siens, mais elle témoignerait aussi de son réalisme, car le danger aujourd'hui n'est plus sur le Rhin, il est dans l'insécurité de la Pologne, dans la précarité de l'Autriche, dans le feu qui couve en Hongrie, dans le trouble que les minorités allemandes peuvent susciter au sein des nouveaux Etats de l'Europe Centrale. LE HAUT COM ISSARIAT EN SYRIE UN ARTICLE DU «TIMES» Londres, 9 octobre. - Le Times, commentant le départ de M. Henri Ponsot, le nouveau haut commissaire en Syrie, écrit:
Notre dette envers l'Amérique
Notre dette envers l'Amérique LE GOUVERNEMENT AMERICAIN NE VOIT QU'UNE CHOSE: LA RATIFICATION DE L'ENGAGEMENT PRIS PAR LA FRANCE De L'ACTION FRANÇAISE (J. Bainville) Inflexibles, décidés à ne pas sortir de la position qu'ils ont prise, le président Coolidge et M. Mellon déclarent que le Parlement français peut voter toutes les réserves qu'il voudra, tous les considérants qui lui feront plaisir, le Gouvernement américain n'en tiendra aucun compte. Une seule chose lui importe: la ratification de l'engagement par la France de payer les annuités qu'il a fixées. On dirait que c'est pour lui une question de prestige à moins qu'il ne veuille garder sur nous et sur l'Europe en général, un moyen de pression financier et politique à la fois. C'est à cela surtout que sert une créance d'Etat, c'est à cela que notre créance sur l'Allemagne pouvait servir. Quant au tribut lui-même, il n'y a pas d'illusions à se faire, il n'est payé que pendant le temps où le créancier domine le débiteur, situation qui dure rarement soixante-deux années. LES ETATS-UNIS DEVRAIENT INSTITUER UNE PROCEDURE D'ARBITRAGE SUR LA CAPACITE DE PAIEMENT DE LA FRANCE DE L'ŒUVRE (César Chabrun) On admet en droit international que les créances d'Etat à Etat ne justifient pas des mesures d'hostilité. Nous savons trop comment en temps de crise les règles du droit international peuvent être méconnues. Ne tentons pas le diable: sans doute les Américains veulent être payés, mais ils désirent plus ardemment encore, que la paix du monde ne soit pas troublée. Ne peut-on leur demander d'être logiques avec leur volonté pacifique et d'éviter toute menace en instituant par avance une procédure d'arbitrage sur la capacité de paiement de leur débiteur? Lorsque la France estimerait ne pas pouvoir faire face à son échéance, si les Etats-Unis élevaient une contestation, on irait devant un tribunal, lequel? La Cour de la Haye, peut-être. Plutôt un tribunal composé d'arbitres désignés par les parties: un arbitre français et un arbitre américain, choisissant chacun un autre arbitre. Ce collège étant présidé par un 5e arbitre choisi d'un commun accord. L'idée de faire arbitrer la capacité de paiement a déjà été lancée dans un savant article de M. Jean Lescure, professeur à la faculté de Droit de Paris. Je la crois féconde. La France n'a pas l'intention de se départir de son attitude [?] loyal; elle a devant elle un créancier loyal. Rien ne serait plus honorable pour l'un et pour l'autre que d'adopter une procédure qui garantirait le règne de l'équité dans leurs rapports réciproques. Mais il est bien évident que des déclarations unilatérales seraient insuffisantes pour établir cette procédure; il faut un avenant aux accords. AU MAROC LE SULTAN EST HEUREUX DE L'ACCUEIL ENTHOUSIASTE QUI LUI A ETE FAIT A MARRAKECH Rabat, 8 octobre (Retardé). - Le Sultan Moulay Youssef a prié le général Daugan de transmettre l'expression de sa vive satisfaction aux autorités des colonies française et européenne ainsi