FRENCH POINT OF VIEW

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 7

FRENCH POINT OF VIEW

EAGER- FOR SETTLEMENT.

Sir Thomas Barclay, a distinguished barrister, practising in Paris as well as in London, who has been identified since 1900 with the* active agitation for a good understanding with France, was'recently interviewed in London by the 'Manchester Guardian."

"Do you think there is any sign of a less rigid attitude on reparations in France?" he was asked.

"My conviction is, from my knowledge of the French people, that if they could get a sum adequate to meet their present obligations and to put their public finances straight, payable, lot us say, in Jive or ten years, they would gladly waive a part of, "if not aU, the greater sum which they are to get from Germany m the course of thirty years." "What about an international loaa?" -An international loan is the pivot on which the whole situation turns. There are lots of money' awaiting investment even m Austria and Germany, and more elsewhere, which could be drawn out by exemption from taxation. An ingenious TA m , including tax in the issue of the loan would bring out / capital Which in France, Gtrmany, and Austria is now hidden from the eye of the exchequer.

_ A. great deal of French money is lying idle at the present moment. Much of it has been invested in German marks, and those who hold those marks are not happy at the turn things are now taking." "How would you explain the Feeling towards England in France?" "I would point out that the French have spent something like eighty milliards of francs (£3200 millions nominally) in restoring the devastated regions', and they have received from Germany, mostly in kind, only four or five milliards. They are aggrieved that England and the United States have not contributed to these reparations. "It may be very logical-.to say that *he French ought to think of what might have happened if we had not gone to their assistance. The fact remains that France at the present moment is alone undertaking tire work of restoration in which, as she thinks, she ought to be aided by her Allies." "Do you think we ought to go to the aid of France in any case, whether America cancels our debt to her or not?"

\ "Certainly. I. think" .this should be part of a general settlement 'in which Lord BaJfoiir's note is probably the first step. We might back a loan to help them to get their reparations. France has no£ contributed 80 milliards of reparations without disorganising her Budget.

"My opinion is that Germany cannot 3o anything more for some time "to come. After careful examination of German finances, a very competent Englishman —and this was not Mr. Keynea—estimated that the utmost Germany could pay, as calculated at the end of last year, was one milliard gold marks (50 millions) per year."