(From our special correspondent) London, July 19. Mr. Herriot was able, this afternoon, to visit the great colonial fair at Wembley with a light heart. The dancers even had him as a spectator for five minutes. The political pitfall of the Conference had just been overcome. This is because the political committee, in a long session which only ended at 2 o'clock, had agreed to propose to the Conference a text which gave the lenders sufficient guarantees and France satisfaction. .

The contentment was all the greater because, in the morning, a few clouds had risen. They are dissipated. Let's stop talking about it. Let us rather note that Ambassador Kellog, Mr. Young and Mr. Logan, all the American representatives in fact, are, towards us, in the best spirits in the world. Mr. Philippe Snowden, on the political side, was perfect. And let's come to the note of agreement that the Prime Ministers will examine on Monday and that the Conference, in plenary session, will undoubtedly approve in the afternoon of that day.

The bases are those that the Work indicated yesterday. The Reparations Commission will be augmented by an American member, appointed unanimously by the heads of delegations or by the President of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, if unanimity cannot be achieved. This representative, elected for five years, and with renewable powers, will have a deliberative voice just as if he were there by the Treaty of Versailles. If America decides later to send us an official delegate, it is this delegate who will hold the powers.

In the event of a German breach denounced by the Reparations Commission, paragraph 2 reads:
“The governments concerned, acting with awareness of the interests they represent and the interests of the lenders, would consult immediately with a view to determining the nature of the sanctions to be applied and to organize them so that they are prompt and effective.

We recognized the very text of the Dawes plan.

But what will the lenders ask before subscribing to the initial loan of 800 million gold marks? Or special pledges, or a general guarantee on German wealth or a mortgage which will leave the right to mortgage after it, because it does not take so much to secure such a small loan or special pledges at the same time as this general guarantee .

The Allied experts therefore proposed that the sanctions which, possibly, could be taken following a serious breach by Germany would safeguard the special pledges assigned to the servicing of the loan and that there would be absolute priority for the servicing of this loan on the general resources of Germany in the event of stipulated general guarantees, as well as on the income which could come from the application of sanctions if ever it were necessary to take.

All this, we see, is logical and could not not be: without that, no lenders, and, without borrowing, no Dawes plan. There is added a stipulation as follows:
“During the duration of the repayment of the loan (i.e. 12 to 15 years), the right to sanctions will only be open if the Reparations Commission has noted the German breach, after having taken advice from the general agent of payments and the representative, not of the trustee of the Dawes plan, but of the lenders.

No assenting opinions, as the British protocol wanted the day before yesterday, which established the payments agent as dictatorial authority, but a simple opinion requested and received on an advisory basis.

This is a reasonable procedure and one that the Reparations Commission should certainly have employed if it had not even been established. We give the last paragraph in its own terms:

“Except as expressly stipulated in the preceding paragraph, all rights that the signatory powers have currently dealt with and the entire report of the experts are reserved. »

Well, here it is, France's freedom of action, and even this famous right to separate sanctions of which some are so jealous! Mr. Herriot has all the more merit for having asked his colleagues, MM. of Perretti and Bergery, to reserve it so expressly that he has no intention of using it. May the French government always be in these positions!

Because certain sanctions, like the Ruhr, over time, could degenerate into war. And if it is always disastrous to wage war, it is even more disastrous, when you have forty million inhabitants and your neighbor has one hundred and ten, to wage it alone. But part of the French press prefers myths to realities. This authorizes him to turn away from real problems like reparations, inter-allied debts, our security.

The decision that Mr. Mac Donald has just taken with regard to the pact proposed by the League of Nations is, however, more serious than that. It is true that we should not despair of anything. There is someone who will lead England back to the League of Nations, and that someone is Germany: Germany which, in execution of the Dawes plan, will be invited to send representatives here on Wednesday or Thursday probably, because the week which is about to open can now only mark the agreement

No doubt the problem of transfers remains. The British fear that a vast organization of benefits in kind will dry up their opportunities and create new unemployed people. But these are not insurmountable obstacles. On the issue of the transfer clause, we are going to seek the opinion of those members of the Dawes committee who are here, Sir Robert Kindersley, MM. Parmentier. Pirelli, etc.

The experts will also surely succeed in reconciling the French and English theses on the methods of evacuating the Ruhr and the precautions to be taken on the railways. Speaking of railways, it is no less true that the loan which is the basis of the Dawes plan is now possible, that the Dawes plan will be able to come to life. Mr. Hymans, this morning, said very well that the agreement was in everyone's minds and that we should therefore not get too attached to the letter, and Mr. Young and Mr. Logan gave him their warm support .

Henry Barde