Goose-Flesh

The inexorable experts droned on, grinding out a plan for German Reparations. When the Anglo-Saxon bankers three weeks ago forced Poincare to agree to accept the Dawes report, the tough, wiry little French Premier had to swallow a big, bitter pill. But when the swelling volume of anticipatory roars, groans and squeals arose from across the Rhine and when the very idea of such a plan gave gooseflesh to the goose-steppers, the French decided that the Dawes plan might not be such a bad thing after all.

So Poincare announced that the sacre Boche could even join the League of Nations, next September, subject to three conditions. The most important condition was that Germany should accept the Dawes plan, as it might be amended by the Allies, and put into effect by September. The other conditions demanded that Germany accept Allied investigation of her military status and that she agree to periodic inspection of her armaments by the Council of the League.

The British Premier MacDonald, who ardently desires to admit Germany to the League, opened conversation with the Berlin Government on the proposals. French opinion smiled in a chillingly superior manner and remarked of the Dawes plan: "We do not believe that any plan, no matter how good, will work unless Germany can be forced to make a real effort to pay reparations. . . . But we are willing to give it a fair trial."