25 AUGUST 1923, Page 2

Even if this arrangement were admissible—and we believe it was

substantially rejected by the British Government on previous occasions—how would the money be collected from Germany ? M. Poincare will not even hear of an impartial international committee of inquiry to assess Germany. The Treaty, he declares, has given to the Reparations Commission all the necessary powers. "France," he goes on, "does not contemplate the ruin of Germany. It is to the interest of France that her debtor should see better days, but Germany must not be allowed at the expense of France and the other Allies to make a too rapid recovery which would result in her commercial and industrial hegemony."