The Conference of the Allied Governments, convened for the purpose of "finding the basis for a fundamental agreement on the settlement of the reparations problem in connection with the question of the inter-Allied debt", has, like its predecessor in London, come to a premature end - with the The difference, however, was that this time there was no adjournment in the hope of being able to bridge the existing differences of opinion by continuing the exchange of ideas.
Rather, they parted in the conviction that a bridge could not be found between the policy of reason and peaceful reconstruction that was wanted in London and the plans of the French government aimed at the destruction of Germany.
The conference remained without result, because in France one did not want an understanding.
The consequences for Germany of this outcome of the conference, which has been expected since the first days, will be of an extraordinarily serious nature.
After all, the only positive result of this conference is that it has torn the last veil with which the current rulers of France have been able to cover their imperialist policy of violence for far too long.
By rejecting the English proposal, which imposed far greater obligations on Germany than she is able to bear, and by refusing even to listen to the new German offer, which Secretary of State Bergmann was commissioned to represent, M. Poincaré has shown that that he is more concerned with anything than a settlement of the reparation question, that the seizure of the pledges in the Rhineland and in the Ruhr area was an end in itself from the outset of his policy, which for months has known only one goal: the economic integration of the industrial West Germany to France and the dismemberment of the Reich by promoting separatism.
France also wanted and consciously brought about the break with England, out of the knowledge that the resistance of public opinion in England and America was the main obstacle to the realization of France's power-political goals.
Reading the French newspapers leaves no doubt about it.
At an hour when the conference was still in session in the Quai d'Orsay and the efforts of the English, Belgians and Italians were aimed at finding a basis for an understanding, the Liberté already wrote under the title Vers l' heureuse rupture”: “Finally we are taking rapid steps towards the break with England.
Tomorrow at the latest the Anglo-French Entente will have ceased to exist.”
And in the same spirit, the "Temps" writes: "The English announced yesterday that they would be leaving today.
The French public received this turn of events with calm.
France has a good conscience and no reason to hide the Franco-British disparity.”
However, the latter is true.
In the past few days, there has really been no doubt in Paris that French politicians wanted to free their hands by breaking with England.
And it is no secret that Mr. Millerand, who before moving to the Elysée was the lawyer of the Comité des Forges, the most influential organization in French heavy industry, which set the policy against Poincaré, who, faced with the risk of a rupture in the last Minute had become unstable, represented the most emphatically.
Took the expected end
What will the next few days bring?
M. Poincaré has repeatedly stated that if the conference broke up inconclusively and France consequently found itself compelled to take isolated action against Germany, it could not, for security reasons, dispense with the military occupation of at least part of the Ruhr.
He had already had a lengthy interview with Minister of War Maginot this morning, and the importance the papers attach to that interview leaves no doubt that this was no longer just a gesture.
However, it is not to be expected that Mr. Poincaré will not, at least formally, abide by the wording of the contract and will do anything before January 15, the due date of the first German payment, based on the London payment plan.