The Daily Times

THE PREMIERS AT CANNES
Ex-President Poincare, who continues his political attacks upon Premier Briand, recently spoke of him as practicing "the diplomacy of the cinema." Hurried trips to London and Washington, meetings with Lloyd George at Boulogne, at Lympne and now at Cannes, seem to the scornful former President of France to partake of the cheap theatricality of the moving picture. Retort in kind might be made to Poincare, who has himself done no little diplomatic traveling, but probably it will not be. The affairs pressing for discussion and settlement at Cannes are too critical for the agents who have them in hand to stop to bandy epithets.
The next instalment of German reparations is due on the 15th, and that question will naturally come first under consideration by the Premiers. As regards the immediate future, they probably will endorse and emphasize the decision of the Reparations Commission, sent to the German Government a month ago. After investigation of German finance on the spot and after listening to all that the German Chancellor had to say, the Reparations Commission satisfied itself that Germany could pay the sums falling due in January and February, and insistently called upon the German Government to take the necessary steps to avoid a default. Still more urgently, the commission urged the German authorities to clean up (assainir) the public finance of their country. Chancellor Wirth replied on Dec. 14, protesting Germany's inability to pay in full, but got back a sharp and warning letter from the commission. This apparently had some effect, since the Chancellor soon after told the Reichstag that it would never do for Germany to sit down and wait to be relieved. She must, on the contrary, bestir herself and make every exertion to meet the obligations which had been, it is true, forced upon her, but which she had consented to assume.
Modification of the schedule for Germany's later payments in reparation will very likely be agreed to by Lloyd George and Briand. This would fit into any plan they may put forward for the general economic restoration of Europe. It is a problem which has to be seen steadily and seen whole. Even at Washington this is now admitted, and America must be a part of the whole. At Cannes many subordinate but still highly important matters will have to have a place in the scheme. There is the entire question of a good understanding and useful co-operation between France and England. Premier Briand, on leaving Paris, put this first of all. He declared that an Anglo-French alliance would be the solution of all Europe's difficulties. That is too sanguine; but if England, as it has been broadly hinted that she may, offers to guarantee France against aggressive attack, the result would instantly make it possible for France to cut her army down by a third, to give up her phantom submarines and to balance her budget. That would mean an immense and most welcome financial relief.
Doubtless, the reports from Cannes for the next few days will savor something of the cinema. The features of the American Ambassador may now and then be caught on the screen. But no fling or epigram can obscure the fact that the conference is momentous. Its decisions cannot fail to affect all Europe and to draw in America, whether she will or no.
The New York Times