Grand Spectacle

ACT I

Place: Paris.

Time: An afternoon of last week when the delegates of the Great Powers were arriving at their hotels, preparatory to assembling next day as the second Dawes Committee (TIME, Jan. 14 et seq.), which will revise the Dawes Plan.

Scene: The oldfashioned, high ceilinged sittingroom of a private suite in the musty and second class Princess Hotel. Through the casement windows one looks out on the Place de L'Etoile; and a portion of the Arc de Triomphe is visible. There is a notice asking guests to put out the light when leaving the room, and another stating that the laundress of the hotel is the only one admitted. The suite is that of John Pierpont Morgan. (A secretary permits reporters to enter the hall, and Mr. Morgan emerges from his bedroom. The correspondents are excited, abashed and somewhat breathless, for no one had supposed that Mr. Morgan was going to slip off to such an unheard of old hotel, and he has been located only after much frantic telephoning.)

J. Pierpont Morgan: "I am here all alone. All the others have gone to the Ritz. But there is really nothing I can tell you, for we have not yet met with our associates on the experts committee. However, the time may come when we shall need your help, and we shall certainly ask for it."

A correspondent from Manhattan: "Isn't the situation almost reversed? Every American correspondent here is certainly ready to help in any way possible, but of course you can be of infinitely greater help to us."

Mr. Morgan: "In the present instance it is the correspondents who can render aid." Curtain.

ACT II

Time: Next day at 1 p. m.

Scene: The salle a manger of the Bank of France in the Hotel de Toulouse, an historic palace built by the great architect Francois Mansart, for a natural son of Louis XIV. On the long table twinkles plate of gold. (Enter Governor Emile Moreau of the Bank of France and the principal delegates: Owen D. Young and J. P. Morgan of the U. S., Sir Josiah Stamp of Britain, Governor of the German Reichsbank, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Industrialist Alberto Pirelli of Italy, Banker Emile Francqui of Belgium, one-time financial attache at London, Kengo Mori of Japan, etc., not forgetting Mr. Morgan's alternate, Thomas W. Lamont.

Sir Josiah Stamp (espying Mr. Young) : "Hello, Owen! My, you look splendid!"

Owen D. Voting (clapping Sir J. vigorously on the shoulder): "Jo, it's good to see you!"

Menu

Hnitres D'Ostend

(Chablis 1921)

Homard a L'Americain

(Pouilly 1919)

Mr. Young (to Mr. Morgan): "Have you ever met this sort of 'American lobster' in America?"

Mr. Morgan: "Only in Paris."

Roti de Venaison

(Chateau Rothschild Bordeau 1881)

Faisans Lucullus

(Clos de Vougeot 1921)

Salade D'Asperge

(Chateau Yquem 1910)

Glaces Banquiers

(Grand Fine Champagne 1910)

Tons Les Fruits

Cafe

(Cognac Napoleon 1820)

M. Kengo Mori (amiably to the Sommelier or wine waiter): "Excellent Napoleon! But why the vintage of 1820, when Napoleon was in exile at St. Helena?"

Sommelier: "Ah, M'sieu, the cognac Napoleon 1820 is much better than the cognac of any of the Emperor's happier years!" (Curtain).

(Correspondents learn that, in addition to lunching, the delegates held a secret session in the Bank of France at which they unanimously besought Mr. Young to chairman the second Dawes Committee, on account of the leading role which he played on the first Dawes Committee. Since President Calvin Coolidge has intimated that he would prefer a European chairman, Mr. Young is obliged to query the White House by cable, in code. Signor Benito Mussolini has meanwhile observed in Rome: "To assemble the committee has cost four months of time. It is to be hoped that its labors will proceed more expe-ditiously.")

ACT III

Time: Two days later at 2 p. m. (The delegates had wished to assemble for their first official session at 10 a. m. but Mr. Morgan demonstrated the impossibility of such an arrangement by stating that at that hour he would be attending the funeral of an old friend, Mrs. Annie Murray Dike.)

Scene: The Blue Room-a glassed-in salon in the Hotel George V. Inside, the delegates are seen assembling for their first plenary session. Outside, a milling crowd of photographers and correspondents look on but hear nothing.

A correspondent: "Who do they think they are? Keeping out the whole world press!" (The delegates settle into their places around the green baize-topped conference table.)

Correspondents (catching a glimpse of Owen D. Young in the chairman's place): "They've elected Young!" (Correspondents rush out to file cablegrams. On their return a handout is issued, stating that all the delegates made brief perfunctory speeches, and announcing that no minutes of the proceedings were kept. Curtain.)

Significance. The deliberations thus begun will continue for some 90 days, in secret. The primary task of the experts is to fix the total sum of reparations payable by Germany to the Allies. The pres-ent Dawes Plan merely guarantees to Germany that she will not have to pay more than 2,500,000,000 gold marks ($595,000,000) per year, but omits to state how long Germany must go on paying. When the second Dawes Committee has filled in with a definite total sum the blank check which Germany signed in agreeing to the Dawes Plan, it will then be time to undertake the second phase of the work. This is expected to be the devising of a mighty scheme for "commercializing" the German debt, that is to say, for issuing bonds against the material resources of Germany. The bonds would be alloted to the creditor powers and sold .by them to private citizens, at propitious times and in quantities small enough not to depress the market. The proceeds of these sales would suffice to pay the German debt to the creditor powers at once and in cash. The bondholders would enjoy an interest return on their investment for perhaps 60 years, when the bonds would mature and be paid off. Should the German government be driven into bankruptcy, in the meantime, the loss would be sustained by the individuals who bought the bonds, not by the great powers which sold them. A leading feature of the negotiations will be the insistence of Britain, France and Italy that they receive from Germany not a farthing less than they must pay on their debts to the U. S. France will also demand enough to pay for rehabilitating her devastated regions. Naturally the European Powers will try to lure the Commission into reopening the whole subject of war debts, but against this Messrs. Coolidge, Hoover, Young and Morgan are expected to maintain their resolute stand.