The Debts

Citizens of the U. S. have been wondering, ever since the last advent of M. Raymond Poincare as Premier (TIME, Aug. 2) just when this firm and foxy statesman would ask the Chamber of Deputies to ratify the Franco-U. S. debt accord (TIME, May 10, 1926).

The question has not been exactly pressing for two reasons: 1) The U. S. Congress has not ratified the accord, but will have to take the whole matter up again because this measure passed only the House (TIME, June 14, 1926) but not the Senate. 2) Premier Poincare has been so busy rescuing France from her financial slough of last year, doubling the value of the franc, and tentatively stabilizing it, that no one seriously expected him to make of his debt-funding plans anything but a dark state secret until stability was achieved. Now the question of ratification has begun to loom again, and M. Poincare answered it last week with characteristic flashing suddenness.

Responding to an interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies, the Premier rapped out: "I do not propose ratification of the [Franco-British and Franco-U. S.] debt-funding accords, because I expect to get better terms; and because Parliament certainly would not agree to bind the country for the proposed term of 62 years."

Can Premier Poincare obtain "better terms" from the U. S.? One obstacle is that the U. S. Debt Funding Commission, having negotiated and signed debt-funding agreements with all nations indebted to the U. S., has officially terminated its existence. If France ever gets better terms from the U. S., she must get them from a new U. S. Commission especially created to give them to her by Congress. The only alternative would be to let the whole matter drop officially, and for the U. S. to accept from France, from time to time, such individual payments as she may wish to give--payments similar to the $10,000,000 recently tendered by France and accepted by the U. S. "without prejudice to ratification" (TIME, March 14). Perhaps that was what foxy M. Poincare had in mind last week when he crisply affirmed: "I expect to get better terms," and then would say no more.

He had let a state secret out of the bag, but kept it still on leash.