USVI Public Records

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Supplement io St. Croix Avis, 25th Aug. 1923. < TELEGRAMS. ST. CROIX STATION. Paris, Aug. 22nd,—The Goverrme (’s reply to the recent British reparations note, made public at the Foreign Office this morning, maintains that the French operation in the Ruhr is absolutely legal. It offers to consider the easiest method ot exacting payment from Germany when resistance has ceased and express- es a willingness to continue the recent discussions with Great Britain. The {‘rench position remains unchanged, ac- cording to the official summary of the re- ply ilssued in English at the Foreign Utfice, prior to the publication of the com- plete text. M. Poincare, in the reply, ¢luims priority for reparations over otier war costs as represented by the inter- Allied debts. France never repudiated the debts she contracted during the war, either to England or Ameriea, in the in- terest of the common victory, the note asseris. France is also creaitor of the other Allies for five or six billion gold marks, the summary continues, but there ean be no doubt that in the minds of those who dratted the treaty, dam- ages Lo persons and property were to be granted priority over war costs. There- fore, asks the note, 1s 1t to be supposed that such war costs which the allies acreed should rank after reparations, aiter pensions and after damages stipu- lited in the treaty, and which they do not claim from Germany, are uow to be claimed by the Allies from each other before Germany has even becun to pay up. Referring specifically to the British demand for the payment of fourteen and one fifth billion gold marks, the summary continues. ‘We do not suppose that England intends to claim the sums owing her by the Allies belore reparations are actually settled. She will certainly be ihe first to realize that in order to pay what she owes, France must previously have recovered her contributing power, have repared her grievous losses and must be ina position to meet German competition with equal weapons. It is no doubt to England’s interest that Ger- many shall recover. It certainly cannot be to herinterest that France shall be dim- inished. The summary begins by des- cribing the note’” as a general and sym- pathetic statement of the position taken by France’’, containing ‘‘the elements of a practical solution”’, The synopsis asserts that France, ‘‘never dreamed of pursuinga selfish policy in the question of reparations, a question that cannot be solved without due regard to the whole European interests involved, Further- nsore, she always took into consideration Great Britain’s lamentable and persistent unemployment’’. The occupation of the auhr was made obligatory, in M. Poin- care’s opinion, by what he calls the delib- erate debasement of Germany’s finances with the avowed intention of escaping payment of reparations. ~ "‘Until the end of 1922"°, the reply to Great Britain ex- plains, '‘Germany had not ceased to aggravate her financial situation. She did nothing to balance her budget. She main lined railroad rates lower than any where else. She increased the number of her functionaries and increased their pay. She remitted a large part of the taxes due from the most powerful manu- facturers even granted them indemni- ties anu subsidies. She has veconstruc- ted her merchant fleet, which is now competing with the British in American waters and she has undertaken an ilm- mense programme of public works, such as France was ob red to ''postpone. M. Poincare cites a previous decision of the Allies, to prove that the occupationof the Ruhr is legal. He mentions the rapid recovery of Austria as proof that Germ- any could have put her finances in order had she wished to doso. The programme, the Premier s2ys, lis simple, for she asked from the first two series of bonds 26 billions, in addition to enongh from the bonds to pay the allied war debt. 1u the text of the rote M. Poincare, reply- ing in numbered parvagraphs to the com- munication of Marquws Curzon, frames his answer 1n a tone less sharp, but not less categorical, reaffirming the French resolution, a hundred times repeated, not to renounce one centime of her repara- tions claim, which is regarded as sacred and which does not resemble any other claim. He repeats the determinat.on ot France not to give up the pledges she holds until after complete paymeunt of re- parations have been made. Referring to the proposed reestimate of Germanys capacity (o pay., the reply says. '"‘We confess we are unable to understand what the British Government means by capacity of payment and present capacity of payment. Germany is equal to noth- ing by will of the Empire itself. All ex- pert calculations are useless’’. The note then asks. ‘'Does the British Cabinet want to suppress Germany’s debt entire- ly, under the pretext that her capacity for payment has been provisionally an- nihilated’’”. M. Poincare replies very pointedly to Lord Curzon’s intimation that Great Britain may soon be obliged to ask France to pay her war debts. He savs France, has never repudiated her debts and never will, she is convinceu that no British Government will ever apply to an ally the pressure that the Lcendon Cabinet does not find it pessible to the former enemies of France’’. Tie Premier repeats the assurance ttat France will attenuate the occupatlon of the Ruhr if Germany ceases her resis- tance and that she will evacuate the Rubr in proportion as payments are actually made. ‘‘France will not change her at- titude on evacuation’’, the note asserts. ““To ask her todo otherwise would be to justify the attitude of Germany, and in the words of Mr. Lloyd George’s council in March 1921, it would be the victors who would pay the cost of defeat and the vanquished who would harvest the fruits of victory’’.