The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 6, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. SEPTEMBER 6, 1924. SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker, The Liquidation of the Versailles Treaty By KARL RADEK N the 16th of July the Allied re- presentatives met in London in order to determine their attitude to the Experts’ Report, and to decide up- on a number of measures arising out of it. There is not the least doubt that this Conference marks a new stage in the liquidation of the relations of forces which found expression in the treaty of Versailles. However much France may cling to this treaty, no matter how much the government of the Left Bloc, with Herriot at its head, may swear their loyalty to this me- morial to the victory of democracy and pacifism, and no matter how Mr. MacDonald may swear that the Ver- sailles peace must remain undis- turbed, all these political manoeuvres can in no way alter the important fact, that the Peace of Versailles is being buried, although unaccompanied by any pomp and ceremony. We said that what we have to deal with is a new stage in the liquidation of the treaty of Versailles. For the oc- cupation of the Ruhr itself constituted an atfempt at such a liquidation. The only difference is that on the 11th Jan- uary 1923 M. Poincare was endeavor- ing to alter the treaty of Versailles in favor of the French bourgeoisie, while at the present time England and Ame- rica are undertaking this liquidation to the disadvantage of the French bourgeoisie. In order to understand the entire change in the _ situation which has taken place in the last months, it is necessary to examine in the first place what was the aim of the French policy in occupying the Ruhr. One can observe three tendencies in the post-war policy of France. to- wards Germany. The first tendency is the efforts of the French militarists to dismember defeated Germany. From fear of Germany with its pre- ponderating population, from fear that German industry will revolutionize war technics and be in a position, in spite of the present defenceless con- dition of Germany, to supply better means for a war of revenge, from fear that new groupings in international politics will render it easier for Ger- many to appear as a military power in the future, these military circles were trying for the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine, not only for the time prescribed by the peace of Versailles (15 years), but as a per- manent guarantee of domination over Germany. They attempted with the help and support of the separatist movement in Bavaria and Pfalz to wrest from Germany the whole area south of the Main. The second group is the French petty bourgeoisie who have lent the state one hundred mil- liard francs for the restoration of northern France and are endeavoring to make Germany pay the interest on this debt, and who are possessed by the fear of a collapse of the franc and of further heavy taxation in the event of Germany failing to pay. With this petty bourgeoisie there are-allied the French deposit banks who negotiated the state loans. The third group is the heavy industry which is seeking to impose an agreement upon German heavy industry which will assure it the preponderance in the Franco- German steel and coal trust and secure it the supply. of German coke and the export of French iron to Ger- many. As this group did not reach its aim by means of negotiations with the German industrialists it endeavored to do so at the point of the bayonet. All these three tendencies existed at the time of the peace negotiations. The claims of the military group, which were represented by Marshall | Foch, collided with the resistance of England and America, who saw in the realization of these aspirations the establishment of French military heg- emony in Europe. The attempts of French industry to establish economic hegemony over the continent already at Versailles, called forth the resist- ance of England, who, in the event of its realization, would have been placed between the two fires of the powerful American and Franco-German compe- tition. The peace of Versailles, by reason of its very nature, marked the rejection of the military and economic | hegemony of France by the Allies. It laid down the amount of tribute which the whole of Germany, which was to remain a whole even though reduced in size, had to pay. At the same time the treaty of, Versailles pro- GERMANY IN what would become of Germany if she paid this tribute. Germany could only obtain the valuta necessary for the payment of the tribute by printing and selling mark notes. Thus there came about the collapse of the mark. Poin- care decided to obtain the consent of the Allies for taking up the so-called territorial sanctions. The idea of thése sanctions. was best expressed by the chairman of the finance commission of the French parliament, Dariacque, in his secret report which was published jin the “Manchester Guardian” in the summer of 1922. “The Ruhr district,” he wrote, pecially that portion which we peredtinas jconstituted the chief element of the wealth of Germany. A great portion |of the German large syndicates were formed here, here they have their gen- s-|ckoned that then, when TRAVAIL many to pay the tribute demanded by the Allies, constituted a common prob- lem in the eyes of Poincare. The re- presentatives of French heavy indus- try knew very well that one cannot compel an industrial country which re- quires an enormous quantity of raw material from abroad to render pay- ment in kind, and that no matter in what form Germany paid the tribute, it would finally consist of exported goods for which no goods would be imported in return. But the French heavy industry drove Poincare to oc- cupy the Ruhr district, because it re- it became clear that it was impossible by this means to obtain the payment of an ap- preciable amount of tribute, Poincare would be compelled to carry out the policy of the Comite des Forges, a po- - wr 44H) WW THEUNIS-MacDONALD-HERRIOT: What has she got in her womb, a Junker or a Bolshevik? vided France with a guarantee against the German revanche. But as is always the case in com- promises, the rejected French claims have found expression in articles of the treaty which permitted France to remain for a definite number of years on the left bank of the Rhine, These clauses were the grounds for a new attempt by France to accomplish her aims, when it became clear that the peace of Versailles, as Briand said, was a beautiful but lifeless ornament. In the first place America has not ratified the treaty signed by Wilson guaranteeing securities to France. England, however, has refused to take up such a responsibility alone. This lent new force to the military tenden- cies striving for the occupation of the Rhine area. Secondly, it became evid- ent that Germany is not in a position to pay the tribute demanded from her by the ultimatum of May 1921. The Allies succeeded in fixing the en- ormous tribute, but in spite of all their ‘economic experts they never thought 1 eral staff and their undertakings. The ten to twelve industrials who stand at their head, hold, either directly or in- directly but in any event in absolute form, the fate of Germany in their hands, They consist chiefly of Stinnes, Thyssen, Krupp, Haniel, Klockner, Funke, Mannesmann and three or four others. Their importance corresponds with that of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Harriman, Vanderbilt and Gould in America. These German magnates, however, play a role in politics which the American millionaires would never dream of. They have already proposed to take the place of the Ger- man state in the payment of repara- tions, but their conditions remain un- acceptable at present.” By means of exercising pressure upon upon the authorities in the Ruhr basin Poincare hoped to put an end to the taxation policy which rendered Germany unable to pay and enriched the coal and iron kings. This policy, which appeared as one of the elements which rendered ft tmpossible for Ga» licy which did not aim at the ex- action of the tribute, but the creation of a Franco-German coal and steel syndicate. The Comite des Forges knew perfectly well that Poincare in the first place represented the policy of the petty bourgeoisie who wish to receive indemnities, but the French iron and coal kings hoped that if he received nothing he would be com- pelled to adopt their programme. The military circles, on the other hand, hoped that the logic of the struggle would compel him definitely to sup port the dismemberment of Germany. If she did not and could not pay then it would be necessary to cut a living portion from her body and to be rid one for all of the German danger. Poincare, who was afraid of find- ing himself isolated, endeavored at first to win over the Allies for the policy of territorial sanctions. When however he became convinced at the Paris Conference that the Allies— who knew quite as well as the French militarists that the territorial sanc- (Continued on page 5.) on a a