Journal de Genève
- Alarm Call
- Russia and the League of Nations
- Montchoisy
The Journal de Genève of 23 October 1926 opened with an alarmed editorial signed J. M. on the federal budget. It argued that the hopes raised by the finance chief, M. Musy, had been undercut by the vote on social insurance, by Alfred Georg's revelations about the pension funds, and above all by the National Council majority, which turned against the Federal Council and adopted the "Graf scale" for officials' salaries, a decision the writer said would open a new hole of many millions in the budget. A foreign report described Moscow's ill humour at Germany's entry into the League of Nations, approved of Berlin's calm response, and called the new Soviet–Lithuanian treaty a warning to Warsaw and Geneva. A short signed column noted, half ironically, that cattle still grazed on the Montchoisy farmland at the city's edge and would soon give way to a rich neighbourhood.
Translation
Alarm Call
For a time there was hope, thanks to the energy of M. Musy, of seeing the federal finances put seriously in order, and already one thought one could make out, on the horizon, the dawn of a period, if not of prosperity, at least of prudence in financial matters. The vote on social insurance has made that hope doubtful; the revelations of M. Alfred Georg on the retirement and pension funds ought to have obliged every national councillor to open his eyes. But, not content with keeping them stubbornly shut, they turned, in their majority, against the Federal Council in the matter of officials' salaries and, despite M. Musy's categorical warnings, voted the Graf scale, whose adoption would dig a new hole of many millions in the budget of the Confederation.
Russia and the League of Nations
As was to be expected, Germany's entry into the League of Nations has not been very pleasing to Moscow, and the members of the soviets do not take the trouble to hide the ill humour caused them by the events that have just taken place in Europe. They vent their discontent in tendentious articles addressed to Germany and spiced, as usual in Moscow, with all sorts of threats. Quite rightly, these blusterings have not been taken too tragically in Germany. A few days later, the soviets concluded with Lithuania a treaty perfectly superfluous in itself, but visibly intended to serve as a warning to Warsaw and to Geneva.
Montchoisy
Somewhat narrowed in its lower part, the Montchoisy "farmland" has nonetheless remained magnificent. A stone's throw from the city, one can see cattle grazing there at this season. The sound of cowbells will soon be followed by that of a wealthy neighbourhood. One must not grieve over it too much. It is "Progress".
Context
Jean-Marie Musy, the finance chief the editorial invokes
The "M. Musy" whose energy the editorialist praises is Jean-Marie Musy, who was elected to the Federal Council on 11 December 1919 and remained a member until 30 April 1934. Throughout his time in office he held the Department of Finance, and he was President of the Confederation in 1925, the year before this editorial appeared. The editorial therefore sets the government and its finance chief against the majority of the National Council. In the paper's account the deputies ignored Musy's "categorical warnings" and voted the Graf salary scale for federal officials. The claim that the scale would cost "many millions", and the pension-fund figures behind Alfred Georg's revelations, are the editorialist's own assertions in this text; the record of Musy's long tenure explains why the writer treats his warnings as the voice of federal financial policy.
Why Germany's League membership worried Moscow
The "events that have just taken place in Europe" in the report are Germany's admission to the League of Nations. Berlin and Moscow had already tried to fence off that step. On 24 April 1926 they concluded the Treaty of Berlin, under which each pledged neutrality for five years if the other were attacked by a third party, and which reaffirmed the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo. Łukasz Mikła's study of the negotiations stresses an accompanying note in which Germany undertook that its access to the League would not harm friendly relations with Moscow, would not lead to recognising the Soviet Union as an aggressor, and that Germany would not take part in imposed sanctions. Those commitments show where Soviet anxiety lay: in the League's collective machinery of aggression findings and sanctions. The "threats" the report attributes to Soviet articles belong to that background, although the report quotes none of them.
The 1926 Soviet–Lithuanian pact and the Vilnius question
The treaty the paper calls "perfectly superfluous" is the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact, signed on 28 September 1926. Its terms explain why the paper saw a message to Warsaw: the Soviet Union continued to recognise Vilnius and the Vilnius Region as Lithuanian, although those territories had been under Polish control since Żeligowski's Mutiny in 1920. Poland claimed the agreement violated the Peace of Riga, while Latvia and Estonia disapproved because it prevented a Baltic Entente. In exchange Lithuania agreed not to join any alliance directed against the Soviet Union, a commitment that meant international isolation. The paper presents the pact as a Soviet riposte to Germany's entry into the League, but the standard account describes it as a Lithuanian initiative, sought as a new foreign-policy direction after the Locarno Treaties. Negotiations began on 25 December 1925, when Foreign Commissar Georgy Chicherin stopped in Kaunas, some ten months before this issue.
German–Soviet contacts after Germany went to Geneva
The report's judgment that Germany rightly did not take Soviet bluster too tragically matches the course of relations in the following weeks. In October 1926, the month of this issue, the Soviet government invited a notable group of Reichstag deputies to Moscow. In December 1926 Chicherin visited Berlin and remarked that German–Soviet relations had improved compared with 1925. The angry press tone the paper describes thus ran alongside continuing diplomatic contact under the Treaty of Berlin.
Original
Cri d'alarme
On eut quelque temps l'espoir, grâce à l'énergie de M. Musy, de voir les finances fédérales s'assainir sérieusement, et déjà l'on croyait deviner, à l'horizon, l'aurore d'une période sinon de prospérité, du moins de prudence dans le domaine financier. Le vote des assurances sociales a rendu problématique cet espoir; les rélévations de M. Alfred Georg sur les caisses de retraites et de pensions auraient dû obliger tous les conseillers nationaux à ouvrir les yeux. Mais, non contents de les tenir obstinément fermés. ils se sont tournés, dans leur majorité, contre le Conseil fédéral dans l'affaire des traitements des fonctionnaires, et, malgré les avertissements catégoriques de M. Musy, ont voté l'échelle Graf, dont l'adoption creuserait un nouveau trou de nombreux millions dans le budget de la Confédération.
La Russie et la S. d. N.
Comme il fallait s'y attendre, l'entrée de l'Allemagne dans la S. d. N. n'a pas été très agréable à Moscou, et les membres des soviets ne se donnent pas la peine de cacher la mauvaise humeur que leur causent les événements qui viennent de se passer en Europe. Ils exhalent leur mécontentement dans des articles tendancieux adressés à l'Allemagne et corsés, comme d'habitude à Moscou, de toutes sortes de menaces. Avec beaucoup de raison, on n'a pas pris en Allemagne ces bravades trop au tragique. Peu de jours après, les soviets concluaient avec la Lituanie un traité parfaitement superflu en lui-même, mais visiblement destiné à servir d'avertissement à Varsovie et à Genève.
Montchoisy
Quelque peu rétréci dans sa partie basse, le «rural» de Montchoisy est resté néanmoins magnifique. A deux pas de la ville on y voit en cette saison pâturer le bétail. Au bruit des sonnailles succédera bientôt celui d'un quartier riche. Il ne faut pas s'en affliger trop. C'est «le Progrès».