MR. HERRIOT’S STATEMENTS TO THE “VORWAERTS

Mr. Herriot, designated president of the council, has just defined, in front of a representative of Vorwaerts, the conduct he will follow in German affairs. From the speech he gave the following five propositions emerge:

1° The problem of repairs can be resolved using the formulas recommended by experts;

2° The German republicans will find in the new French ministry an accommodating interlocutor, but the communists as well as the frank or masked nationalists will have to stay away;

3° French negotiators as well as German negotiators will have to state certain facts as well as certain particular feelings. By this we undoubtedly mean that a clean slate cannot be made of the past, that, on the French side, precautions are in order, the merits of which must be accepted by the Reich. We hope not to divert Mr. Herriot's words from their meaning by interpreting them in this way;

4° Thanks to its more robust economy than that of France, Germany is capable of paying reparations without being crushed;

5° We know neither Ludendorf nor big industry. We have no sympathy with them. It is from the German people that we expect peace to be established.

This is the program. No doubt a more precise form will be given to it later: mitigations or reservations may arise. But, stated in the summary terms which have just been transcribed, no doubt exists as to the two fundamental postulates from which it proceeds:

The German republicans are still capable of governing Germany, separated from the communists and nationalists, they have the power to ensure the payment of reparations. Thus appears the thesis to which the ministry of tomorrow will quickly bind itself,

Its main fault is to go against all the experience acquired. We cannot say that the “German Republicans are the true masters of the Reich, even without taking into account the last elections, even if we admit that there was a mistake on May 4.

For example, great complacency is necessary to label the Catholic center and the populist party as “republicans”. The men of these two groups, said Mr. Kautzky, in an article already cited, would not pay of themselves to defend the Weimar regime if it were in danger. As for socialism, supposing that its devotion to current institutions is incontestable and can, in misfortune, be pushed to the point of heroism, supposing that it is truly resolved to enforce the reparations clauses, we are entitled to wonder if, placed at the head of the Reich, he would be able to impose on it the discipline and work that the payment of large sums necessarily requires.

Recent years have shown that, as master of the State, socialism has brought waste and corruption to all departments. The first gesture of the men who relieved Germany in November 1923 was to close their councils to it. These truths are unpleasant. But what's the point of paying attention to words? At the point where matters are today, we can hardly escape the experience of the experts' report, unless the Germans, in the near future, are struck by madness and give in to the most blind passion.. Let us at least conduct this experiment under the conditions repeatedly defined by Mr. Poincaré. In the event of a new bankruptcy, let us be assured of some recourse.

PERTINAX.