17 MAY 1924, Page 2

It is not thus that we may expect to reap

the benefits of the change in French opinion. It is rather that the whole atmosphere of the negotiations has changed. M. Poincare has cancelled his visit to Chequers on the 19th, but it is certain that whoever succeeds him must, sooner or later, meet Mr. MacDonald either in England or in France. It is then, with the restunption of schemes for putting into operation the Dawes Report, that we may hope to find a very different situation. After all, M. Poincare accepted the principle of the Dawes Report in theory. Thus it should not prove at all impossible for the new French Government to accept it in fact and assist in putting it into practice. M. Poincare will hardly be able to attack it for doing what he himself always said he would do. Much will now depend upon the attitude of Germany. We sincerely trust that the result of the French elections will be to strengthen the hands of those in favour of whole-hearted acceptance of the Dawes Report. It is hard to believe that the Nationalist Party in Germany will really, in the end, stand in the way of a settlement based on that Report which can do so much for Germany, and the failure of which would spell an inevitable ruin.