M. Caillaux has arranged to come to London next week,
and it is expected that this time there will be fruitful negotiations about the French debt. The French leaders no longer think it possible to evade pay- ment; there have been great changes of feeling= since the uncompromising days of M. Poincare. Nor have the changes been only in France. In this country many people used to believe—we believed it ourselves—that the most practical as well as the handsomest thing to do would be to wipe out all debts between the Allies. It is no longer possible to hold that view. The French them- selves made it impossible for us to do so when America demanded payment from us and they professed unconcern at the fact that a considerable proportion of our debt to Anierica had been incurred simply to pass the money on to France. 'At the very least, therefore, we are justified in asking France to pay us as much as we owe to America on her behalf. Whether we shall get even so much as that is another'matter. * *
