Can France Pay?

Focuses on the French approach to its debts from the U.S. and Great Britain. Report that Great Britain has laid down the principle that she wants from the collectivity of continental debtors only sufficient payments to enable her to effect her own payments to the United States; Argument of the French that they should only be asked to pay a proper proportion of this reduced sum; Report that the French take the reduction to be absolute when in fact it is only conditional, and then urge that they are only liable, if the Soviet Union is excluded for half the amount required by Great Britain; Report that the Dawes Report is actually given an American name; View that in adopting the principle of the capacity of payment France does not adopt the principle of an impartial investigation into her finances; Information on the figures of French finances as they have been laid down by official persons for the guidance of the American Debt Funding Commission; View that France does recognize her debts and is only desirous of discussing ways and means; Report that while the currency is in a state of flux no valuation of wealth is possible and even were it possible it would be a poor guide to France's capacity, since much of the national wealth is altogether unconvertible; Report that while France protests that she could only pay something over 2,000,000,000 paper francs a year to both U.S. and Great Britain, the demands on her amount to about 4,000,000,000 which is the cost of the upkeep of her military forces; Report that Great Britain, though not protectionist in the same sense, is alarmed at commercial competition and the continued existence of unemployment and cannot favor and facilitate the transference either of German or of French wealth.