Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1924. FAVOURABLE OMENS

Evening Post, Issue 88, 12 April 1924, Page 6

Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1924. FAVOURABLE OMENS

There is -a disappointing lack of detail in the opinions hitherto cabled regarding the report of the financial'experts who were commissioned to .advise the Reparation Commission, but the general verdict is so favourable that hope which had been crushed flat by four years of almost. unbroken disappointment begins to spring again. According to Sir Robert Home, who as Chancellor of the Exchequer during the last eighteen months of the Lloyd George Coalition Government can speak with authority on such a subject, the report is " the most important document in recent history." By " recent history " he may probably be taken to mean history since the sighing of the Peace Treaty at Versailles. It is also fairly safe to say that the most important documents of the last ten years are Austria's declaration of war on Serbia which set the Great War going on the 28th July, 1914 ; the British ultimatum to Germany which bro,ught Britain into it exactly a. week later % the Armistice which Germany signed on the 11th November, 1918; and, finally, the Treaty of Peace which was signed at.Versailles on the 28th June, 1919. The first two of these historic documents were /concerned with the making of war,' tho other two with the making of peace. If the report which has been presented to the; Reparation Commission succeeds in making the peace de'-. dared at Versailles a reality, the Sth or 9th April, 1024; will fully deserve to be added to the list. But the world has been too often disappointed' about the peace which' is no peace to indulge in any rash Hprjes. It has been remarked by an American wit that "the war to end was a fizzle, but as a peace to end peace this one is doing well." It has indeed been doing so well that the idea of adding another link to the chain that will at last end both the war to end war and the peace to end peace seems almost millennial in its extravagance. Yet the demands of caution and the fear of disappointment need not blind us to the fact that for the first time for at least two years the omens are favourable. Berlin has not greeted a report, which originated in her own proposal with and gnashing of teeth, or'with such uncompromising ' assertions of her rights and her dignity as to suggest that it was she and not the Allies that won the war. Prance has not stamped upon the report or peremptorily turned it down with the stereotyped reply that her rigid Prime Minister has had ready, for every other peace proposal of the lap fifteen months—that she is jn the Ruhr and intends to stay there until a hundred per cent, of her demand has been satisfied. Neither of.the belligerents is in the mood with which one or other or both of them have met all previous suggestions fora settlement. That a. tribunal to the constitution of which both parties agreed has reported unanimously, and that the litigants are apparently disposed to give its recommendations a hearing —these are novelties in the FrancoGerman diplomacy to which the history of the last five years affords no parallel. This does not mean that a solution has been reached, or that it is even in sight, but it does mean that the way to a solution has been indicated by an independent and competent authority, and th^t neither of the parties has refused offhand to consider it. There are still all sorts of difficulties in the road. It,-is one thing for unbiased experts to'lay down the general lines of an economic solution and another thing for the parties to hold their national pride and their mutual animosities in check and make the adjustments and sacrifices which must precede the putting of it into operation. A wise corrective to undue optimism is supplied by M. Barthou, who, as chairman, has faithfullyv championed the Poincare policy on the Reparation Commission. When the experts presented their report, M. Barthou said :— Although your' conclusions are unanimous, you cannot expect they will command unanimous • approbation from opimon shaken by such passionate politics and such contrary interests. A particularly encouraging feature of the position is that so far there appears to be something even better than an open mind on both sides. The Germans are not dwelling in disgust on the concessions they are asked to make to France, nor is the attention of France monopolised by the points that she is asked to concede to Germany. Berlin is said by "The Times" correspondent, to be " grateful to the experts for their clear and categorical statement as to the necessity for the economic sovereignty and unity of Germany iv the occupied and ( unoccupied territory• aj.jke,". Au<l

despite some adverse • criticism of the scale of payments, the proposals have, he says, been " fairly well received in financial and Government circles." On the other hand, the " experts' unanimous decision that Germany is really able to pay^ substantial. reparations " has_ given great satisfaction in Paris, and French opinion, according to the correspondent of the "Morning Post," is welcoming the report as ■" offering the most practical solution of the reparations problem that may now be expected.',' , That the conditions of the withdrawal of France from the Ruhr will'be the crux of the problem would have been snffip.TP.nt.ly obvious without the opinion of the British Foreign Office or the demands of the French Press. " Are you prepared to countersign the experts' reports?" asks- the "Matin." . The reports !must be countersigned, and France must be given guarantees as solid as what she now derives from her occupation of the Ruhr. Germanyvmus't be held to payment by means which are beyond the power of evasion, and, while equally sure, will be free from the indignity, the exasperation, the impoverishment, and the demoralisation of the French regime in the Ruhr.