Vossische Zeitung
- French Statement on Thoiry
- France Will Not Pay
- Prussian Coalition Negotiations
The Vossische Zeitung of 12 October 1926 carried a Paris report that, according to an official French statement, experts on both sides were still working on the Franco-German understanding begun at Thoiry, with the two governments for now working separately on drawing up an overall plan. A second Paris report described French associations resolving on an energetic campaign against what they called a kind of debt bondage, even at the risk of a government crisis, and a press turning combative, with L'Oeuvre's "We are not paying!" urging opposition to ratification and floating a tax strike. A Prussian item noted that talks on a Grand Coalition confined to Prussia sat awkwardly with the Democrats' and the Centre's wish for stable majorities in both the Reich and Prussia.
Translation
French Statement on Thoiry
Publisher [?] Editor-in-chief: Georg Bernhard. Responsible editor (except for the commercial section): Carl Misch, Berlin. Unsolicited manuscripts are returned only if postage is enclosed. Publisher [?]
French Statem—
Drawing Up the Overall Plan
News service of the "Vossische Zeitung"
br Paris, October 11
Official French quarters stated this evening, on the question of Franco-German understanding following the talks at Thoiry, that the work of the experts has continued on both the French and the German side. For the time being, the two governments are working separately on drawing up a [?] of the [?] of the [?]
France Will Not Pay
…the associations had resolved to launch an energetic campaign against the attempt to impose a kind of debt bondage on France, even at the risk that this might lead to a government crisis. The effect of this letter is already visible today in the press, which is dropping the restraint of recent days and striking very energetic tones. Typical of this is an article in the "Oeuvre" which, under the slogan "We are not paying!", calls for opposition to ratification and launches the idea of a tax strike in case, contrary to expectations, a majority in favor should be found in Parliament. This change of mood is likely to have very drastic consequences for the attitude of the political parties, and it must…
Prussian Coalition Negotiations
[?] Such conduct would, to be sure, be a strange prelude to the talks on the Grand Coalition, which in any case are not exactly made easier by the fact that the new majority is to remain confined to Prussia alone. It is well known how much importance the Democrats and the Center attach to stable majorities both in the Reich and in Prussia. [?]
Context
What Briand and Stresemann sketched at Thoiry, and why the plan shrank
The official French statement reported here came less than a month after the meeting it refers to. Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations on 10 September 1926, and on 17 September Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann met at Thoiry. There Stresemann pledged material support to stabilize the franc, while Briand agreed to return the Saar Basin early and to bring an early end to the military control and occupation of the Rhineland. The franc's weakness was bound up with the unsettled war debt, because the United States had been quietly blocking loans to France as long as the debt question remained open. The scope of the Thoiry resolutions was soon reduced because of objections from both the German and the French governments, and the historian Gerhard Rempel argues that American and French politicians prevented the bargain from succeeding. The statement printed by the paper says only that experts were continuing and that the two governments were for now working separately on an overall plan. It gives no reason for the delay.
Why the war-debt settlement with the United States was so unpopular in France
The "debt bondage" the associations denounced was the Mellon–Bérenger Agreement of 29 April 1926, which fixed the amount and repayment of France's wartime debt to the United States. The settlement greatly reduced what France owed, but the French had wanted a clause linking their payments to German reparations, and the United States would not accept that linkage. Most French people felt the United States should waive its claims altogether. Veterans were among the opponents: 20,000 of them demonstrated in Paris against the agreement. The associations' letter and L'Oeuvre's "We are not paying!" campaign described in this article grew out of that broad hostility. The tax strike appears in the report as one newspaper's proposal in case Parliament unexpectedly voted for ratification.
How the ratification fight unfolded under Poincaré
The article's talk of a possible government crisis came after months in which French cabinets had changed quickly. In June 1926 the American ambassador reported that Bérenger expected Parliament to vote on the debt agreement in mid-June. Instead, the Briand ministry resigned on 15 June, a period of rapid changes of ministry followed, and Raymond Poincaré's government took office on 23 July. Successive governments then delayed ratification. The Chamber of Deputies approved the 1926 agreement only on 21 July 1929, after an all-night session, by 300 votes to 292. That narrow margin nearly three years later indicates that the hostility the Vossische Zeitung recorded in October 1926 lasted, even though Parliament did eventually ratify.
The parties and ministers behind the Prussian coalition question
The Democrats and the Centre named in the article were, together with the Social Democrats, the parties of the so-called Weimar coalition; Rempel notes that in the 1928 Reichstag election this coalition came within six seats of an absolute majority. In Prussia the Social Democrat Albert Grzesinski served as interior minister from 1926 to 1930, after heading the Prussian police from 1922 to 1924 and the Berlin police from 1925 to 1926. Foreign Minister Stresemann's own party, the People's Party, is described by Rempel as moderate-liberal and as standing outside the governing coalition in 1928. The article's objection is specific: the new majority under discussion would hold only in Prussia, while the Democrats and the Centre wanted stable majorities that matched in the Reich and in Prussia.
Original
Französische Erklärung zu Thoiry
Verlag [?] Chefredakteur: Georg Bernhard. Verantw. Redakteur (m. Ausn. d. Handelsteils): Carl Misch, Berlin. Unverl. Manuskripte werden nur zurückgesandt, wenn Porto beiliegt. Verlag [?] Französische Erklä Aufstellung des Gesamtplans Nachrichtendienst der " Vossischen Zeitung " br Paris, 11. Oktober Von amtlicher französischer Seite wird heute abend zu der Frage der deutsch-französischen Verständigung im Anschluß an die Besprechungen von Thoiry erklärt, daß sowohl auf französischer wie auf deutscher Seite die Sachverständigenarbeiten weitergegangen seien. Die beiden Regierungen arbeiteten vorläufig getrennt an der Aufstellung eines [?] der [?] der [?]
Frankreich will nicht zahlen
die Verbände die Einleitung einer energischen Aktion gegen den Versuch, Frankreich eine Art Schuldknechtschaft aufzuerlegen, beschlossen hätten, selbst auf die Gefahr hin, daß es darüber zu einer Regierungskrise kommen sollte. Die Wirkung dieses Briefes zeigt sich heute bereits in der Presse, die die Zurückhaltung der letzten Tage fallen läßt und sehr energische Töne anschlägt. Typisch dafür ist ein Artikel des " Oeuvre ", der unter der Devise: " Wir bezahlen nicht! " zur Opposition gegen die Ratifikation auffordert und die Idee eines Steuerstreiks lanciert für den Fall, daß im Parlament wider Erwarten eine Mehrheit dafür sich finden sollte. Für die Haltung der politischen Parteien dürfte dieser Stimmungsumschlag sehr einschneidende Folgen haben, und es muß
Preußische Koalitions-Verhandlungen
[?] Ein solches Verhalten wäre allerdings ein merkwürdiger Auftakt zu den Besprechungen über die Große Koalition, die ohnehin dadurch nicht gerade erleichtert werden, daß die neue Mehrheit lediglich auf Preußen beschränkt bleiben soll. Man weiß, welch großen Wert Demokraten und Zentrum auf stabile Mehrheitsverhältnisse sowohl im Reich wie in Preußen legen. ord - shin Dr. hat sche rist, gs - sie