17 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 2

The Times of Thursday published a powerful letter from General

Smuts, urging the Government to summon a Conference to inquire into the reparations problem in its widest sense. The Conference which he suggests would include America, and would, if necessary, be quite independent of France. We heartily agree. The latest French proposal to appoint a sub-committee of the Reparations Commission, to hold a highly circumscribed inquiry, would, as Sir John Bradbury has said, be a pill to cure an earthquake.