NO NONSENSE

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1929, Page 3

NO NONSENSE

CRISIS AT THE HAGUE SNOWDEN’S FIRM STAND. SOCIALIST AND LIBERAL DISSENT. London, Aug. 23. Oi what avail to bandy astronomical figures about—milliards of marks, of francs and such? By the time this dispatch is in the letter-box at St. Martins le Grand, the Young Plan is dead or damned, or is reborn in a new guise. Suffice it to register that to date Italian intransigence m spite of Britain’s generous debt terms, France’s cold feet about the Rhine, at the moment of writing, still prevent decision. The famous tea party at which M. Briand and Mr. Snowden met for the first time socially since the Chancellor dropped his bomb, does not after all appear to have soothed -French susceptibility as much as was reported. M. Briand is now reported to have stated that the French evacuation will take far longer than was anticipated, and has raised technical difficulties, of which no mention was made when the discussion began. It can be taken as certain that the French, will hot undertake to evacuate unless all financial questions are settled. More than that. M. Briand’s sudden reservations suggest that he, personally, it not hopeful, and that Baron Adatchi’s tea party only served to show how serious are the existing divisions. The position is made particularly critical by the fact that the Young Plan should come into force on September 1. The time limit for an agreement is becoming dangerously short. ' J 1 In this, therefore, there is no great comfort for Germany, where hope is pinned to the acceptance of the Young Plan, not that they care ho wthe annuities' are divided among the Allies. What matters to them is that th© plan does .reduce the annuities and fixes their liabilities, and its collapse would have a terrible effect on their country. Indeed they believe, and they are not alone in that belief, that its effect on other conn-, tries would be just as terrible. There is great resentment in German circles at The Hague, at what is considered to be lack of consideration for the difficulties in -which Germany will be placed by the collapse of the Young Plan. The accusation, in fact, is being made, says the Manchester Guardian's correspondent at The Hague, that it was the aim of the British Treasury from the first to wreck the plan. The Times takes this aspect of the trouble calmly, and says, “It is, of course, regrettable that German finances should be inconvenienced by the postponement of- the execution of the experts’ report.” LABOUR CRITICISM. But of the general question, crystallised by Low in his-cartoon of Mussolini and Snowden as a- contest of chins—an attitude which fylie Times characterises as “an irresponsible tendency to dramatise” the quarrel, as a personal duel between the Duee and Mr. Snowden,- it has to be recorded that support of the Chancellor has been up till now unanimous. What he is doing this afternoon will be the acid test of Snowden statesmanship. Fbr during this week some note of doubt has crept into the eiiorus, notably among the Chancellor's Socialist and Liberal admirers. The New Leader publishes a number’of letters uniformly in favour of Mr. Snowden, but the editor and Mr. Brailsford, its former editor, have declared their alarm “at this striking unanimity, and at the bellicose tone which is bein'" heard on every hand. .When every jingo in the country is ecstatically shouting Mr. Snowden’s name, we have an instinctive feeling- that all is not well." The New Leader editorial concludes: “And we are not alone in this. During the last few days a definite undercurrent of uneasiness has begun to creep into leading art vies in the most enlightened sections in the Press. There is, too, the thinly disguised anxiety of our Continental comrades. It was time that some voice broke through this chorus of undiluted praise. And if W6 have done so, it was not because of any desire to be ungenerous to colleagues and friends, but because it became a duty to point out risks to Internationalism and Peace that seemed inherent to us in Mr. Snowden’s policy." Mr. Brailsford appeals to his fellow Socialists whqn he says:' "Again and again the Socialist International, with the full assent of the British members, has insisted that the claims of the Allies on Germany ought, in morals and in honour, to be confined to the cost of restoration alone. Under that head our British claim is negligible. All this wrangling for a larger share than France and Itaiy receive goes flatly against this accepted principle. We can claim no Socialist sanction for our conduct if we upset the Young Settlement, prolong the occupation of the Rhineland, and perpetuate the war atmosphere in Europe for the sake of a shilling a head.” LIBERAL JOURNAL UNEASY. It is the Liberal Nation which aligns itself with these recalcitrant Socialists. It says: “That Mr. Snowden, should talk in that way confirms the fear which we expressed last week that he is not merely trying,' as it is his business to do, to get the best possible terms for the British taxpayer, but that he is standing out frantically for what he conceives to be a vital matter of principle. For our part we doubt whether any real principle is involved, except that it is wrong to-press Germany for more than she can reasonably pay.” The Nation compares Mr. Snowden to Palmerston, Disraeli and Joseph Chamberlain in his later years, when he said on Saturday that money was of no importance, and* talked of prestige. Its political correspondent develops the comparison: “Not since Lord Beaconsfield - startled the diplomats at the Berlin Congress half a century ago with ‘terribly firm language’ and a reminder that his train was waiting, has any British statesman at any international gathering gained such widespread personal popularity with his own countrymen as Mr. Philip Snowden at The Hague. It is true to say that the psychological hour has struck, and with it has come the man. Mr. Snowden represents' a phase of British public opinion; the overwrought taxpayer who has been holding the war debts ‘baby’ so long and with such.an air of quiet resignation, is at last growing weary of a task which seems to earn him no gratitude. Sir Austen Chamberlain may ‘love France like a’woman,’.but women have been known to? be deceivers. What Lhe public required -was a diplomatic heI man’—a man armed with a big stick and a ready command -of rough stuff to

tame the shrew of the Quai d'Orsay! Mr. Snowden has shown himself to be the caveman chancellor. Lord Morley once said there was nothing so dangerous as a ‘Jacobin turned Jingo,’ and although no one can fairly apply the latter epithet to Mr. Snowden, he has undoubtedly made a strong appeal to the 100 per cent. Britisher who sighs for the days of a jaunty Palmerston, who will stand no nonsense from the foreigner.”