By the People's Advice

INTERNATIONAL

By the People's Advice

Owen D. Young caught the Aquitania last week, and it was important that he should do so. On June 15 he was due to be in Cleveland, calling the world's attention to the marriage of his sober-minded son, Charles Jacob, to Miss Esther Mary Christensen, talented black-and-white artist, chic daughter of Danish inventor and Vice Consul Niels Anton Christensen.

Keeping Mr. Young in Paris until the last minute was another consummation devoutly to be wished, the formal signing of the German Reparations Agreement and adjournment of the Second Dawes Committee.

In the Grand Salon of the Hotel George V fourteen men blinked uneasily behind a long green table in the blinding rays of sunlamps and arc lights. Mr. Young, chairman and presiding genius of the conference, sat in the middle, on his right Emile Moreau, Governor of the Bank of France, on his left Morgan Partner Thomas W. Lament and Boston Lawyer Thomas N. Perkins. On the green cloth in front of Chairman Young were two white blocks of foolscap, two and a half inches thick, copies in French and English of the famed agreement, neatly prepared by Sir Josiah Stamp, head of the British delegation, and a white meerschaum pipe, gift of John Pierpont Morgan.

The time was ten minutes to six. The ceremony had been scheduled to take place an hour earlier. Until the last moment anxious delegates pawed over the documents making minute emendations-- changing commas to semi-colons, changing ands to buts.

Even at the last minute the conference lived up to its reputation for the unexpected. While the 14 delegates blinked at a battery of cameras, a short-circuited sunlamp set fire to one of the saffron window curtains. The 14 delegates sat, dignified and stately, while excited waiters and cameramen rushed about with fire extinguishers, put out the blaze.

In the hot glare of studio lamps that brought unseemly beads of perspiration to the delegates' potent brows they signed the two documents alphabetically according to countries. Germany (Allemague) first signed the French copy, Belgium the English. For the benefit of the sound photographers, the obliging delegates scratched extra loudly with their pens. Eight minutes later the last signature was affixed. Chairman Young spoke as follows:

"We may fairly claim for the plan that it reflects our best judgment of what the settlement ought to be, arrived at with the advice, not of the governments, but of the peoples, functioning through the press which modern communications have made instantly effective in every interested country in the world.

"Has anyone any more remarks to offer?"

There were no remarks. Chairman Young spoke as follows:

"I declare this conference adjourned without delay."

Later, Banker Moreau remarked: "The report is not entirely satisfactory to any one country. Therefore it is highly satisfactory to all." Mr. Young rushed back to his rooms to finish packing.

Last week brought a few additional details about the Bank of International Settlement (TIME, March 25), the structure on which the entire Reparations Agreement rests, destined to become the most important financial institution in Europe. Its purpose:

1) To supersede Reparations Agent Seymour Parker Gilbert in the handling of reparations payments.

2) To assist Germany to make these payments by financing and selling bonds against German railways and industries.

3) To pay the last 21 1/2 years of Germany's debt out of its own profits.

Three cities are struggling for the location of the International Bank: Basel, Switzerland; Amsterdam, Holland; Brussels, Belgium. From its accessibility to German industrial centres, most reports favor the latter.

The bank's original nominal capital will be 100 million dollars, its initial deposits some 300 millions. Voting stock will be divided among the seven countries participating in the bank: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the U. S. Stock of the first six nations will be held by national banks of issue, U. S. stock will be bought and held privately.

The bank will be controlled by an administrative council, none of whom shall be active in politics. The Administrative Council will include one member from the national banks of each of the seven countries (exception, the U. S., TIME, May 27), with additional members representing finance, commerce, industry.

Recognizing Washington squeamishness, it is provided that other members may appoint two members from any country unable to appoint its own.

Organizers of the bank are looking far beyond the 58 1/2 years of German Reparations. It is their intention to make the bank an international clearing house for all international banking problems, eventually doing away with the necessity of shipping large quantities of gold from one country to another.