The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1924. ALLIED UNITY.

Southland Times, Issue 19294, 12 July 1924, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1924. ALLIED UNITY.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald in his dealings with France has an advantage not enjoyed by his predecessors—the absence of M. Poincare, whose attitude in any negotiations touching Reparations was almost invariably shaped with the idea of blocking any useful discussion. Ip almost every instance he opposed sentiment to reason, and playing on the fear that Allied unity would be endangered he managed to get his own way. M. Herriot, while he has not yet relaxed to the extent desired by the British Prime Minister, has displayed a greater readiness to view the whole problem of Reparations with an idea of securing a practicable solution, and the conference next week should mark a step forward. The Dawes Report, although its scope was limited by the French policy preceding the elections in France, opens the way to a reasonable solution, providing the Germans tune their behaviour to the occasion. In the Dawes Report there is a scheme not merely for the payment of Reparations but for the rehabilitation of Germany, which means, of course, the recovery of Central Europe, and it is an important feature of the report that it will ensure a modification of the powers of the Reparations Commission insofar as the practical side of the matter is concerned. It is not too much to say, also, that the introduction of American representatives with official responsibility and powers, particularly on the question of default by Germany, is one of the most important and most hopeful steps taken since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which seems to be coming nearer to the point where a review will be possible. Not so long ago Colonel H«use, the shrewd Texan who was so valued a helper to Woodrow Wilson, prophesied that the elevation of Ramsay MacDonald was part of a movement sweeping over Europe for the liberalisation of national sentiment in connection with the Treaty. Colonel House on several occasions showed that he could read the political mind of Europe, and there is hope that his forecast in this instance is as soundly based as was his report to President Wilson early in 1914 that Germany intended to go to war before the expiry of many months. The State to-day is set for a saner view of the Treaty of Versailles, and the situation is working to the-point at which the provisions of that document may be reexamined, as President Wilson obviously intended they should be. France is moving away from her old militarist stand. She has not yet gone far, but it will not be long before we are able to read the extent to which M. Herriot is going to justify the hopes that his elevation to power would mean a great stroke for the genuine pacification of Europe.