The chief sensation has been Caused by an article" in
the Washington Post, sighed'by the editor, Mi. George Harvey, the forener Anierican Ambassador in- London, We have' written in our first leading'artiele•about Mr: HarVey's mereiless attack on France 'and will confine mil:selves here to Other' points in the argumentative exchanges between France and -America. M. Clementel, the French' Minister of Finance; has isshed i -financial inventory in which he' attempts to explain the French attitude towards inter:Allied debts. In this ,inVentory he makes the very distinction between political and commercial debts of which lit Harvey has complained' In further explanation of this principle he says that many Frenchmen of all shades of opinion point out that Great Britain and America, while defending Belgium and France; were really fighting to prevent Germany from imposing her tyranny on the world. The very fact that France happened to be the battlefield meant to the other Allies a saving in time, men and money while it inflicted on France an extra burden of damages. so bitterly in the apologies of M. Loucheur. He considers himself to be justified in omitting from French liabilities any sum for meeting the debts_to. Great Britain and the United States. " Strict justice," he says (we quote from a translation in the Times)- " would seem to demand the general addition of the expenses of the War and their sharing out among the Allied States sin proportion to the wealth of each, without taking into consideration the separate engagements (i.e., borrowing transactions) compelled by necessities of the moment."
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