Five Hour Speech

In the Chamber of Deputies one Louis Marin, Deputy, made a five-hour speech. Some of the things he said in urging that France had a counterclaim against her creditors:

"Must we pay now for the tunics and rifles of the 350,000 men who fell between the time of America's declaration of war and the first entry of her troops into action? . . . .

"Are lives and limbs lost on the battlefield of less value than money loaned? ....

"Are the terms of the peace treaty insisted on by America and never ratified not worth some compensation?. . .

"While war still raged, statesmen in every country appealed in the common cause. Some gave their ships, some munitions, some the lives of their sons, some money and today only those who gave money come saying to us: 'Give back what we loaned.'

"Yet, during the War, money was munitions. It was not more valuable than the lives given by 1,450,000 Frenchmen who died on the field and 300,000 who died of their wounds.

"On which side does the real debt lie? Let us speak the truth. Our Anglo-Saxon friends like that, and there are many who share our opinion. France isn't pleading her cause. She has given her signature and she will respect it, but she demands as her right and not as an act of grace that there be taken into account in the settlement her side of the balance sheet. . . .

"France is not afraid of an accountancy which takes note of her dead and wounded. She is not afraid of an accountancy which takes note of the causes which hastened or retarded the final victory. One in six of her mobilized men and one in twenty of her population died and more than 4,000,000 were wounded.

"That is not all. There are 800,000 young women compelled to sterility because 800,000 young men have died. There are suffering and sickness and the loss of millions of frontier population to be estimated. . .

"Was the Marne worth nothing? Could Verdun not be estimated in cash value?. . . .

"But where are those compact guarantees? All that is left to us is the sacrifice we made to obtain them.

"In the Treaty of Versailles are many clauses placed there at the sole demand of the United States. But the United States Senate refused to ratify the treaty as was its right. But does not that refusal give France the right to other compensation?

"France is not alone among the debtor nations of the world. There are half a score of others waiting her lead and her effort to show the world that gold is not the only thing that counts.

"It will be an injustice to the whole world if those who today are the richest demand from those exhausted in the effort for the common victory that there cannot be compensations.

"If in this world the power of gold has so much influence on the policy of nations, then farewell to justice and farewell to the power of conscience and the high influence of the great heart of humanity."

The Chamber throughout the speech enthusiastically applauded the speaker and in the daily press of Paris approval was hardly less clamorous.

But the speech embarrassed the Government. It was, in effect, a bold statement for repudiation of France's debts on the score of having borne most of the material brunts of the War. The Government had previously engaged itself to pay the debts of the country and had loudly scouted the base insinuations that it had any intentions of following a policy of repudiation. Consequently, although Premier Herriot had previously described M. Marin's speech as "a most impressive appeal to the cause of justice of the Allies," it took an early opportunity of disavowing the speech as a national expression on the Nation's debt attitude. It likewise denied those persistent callers of affichage (printing and posting of the speech throughout France) their tumultous request.

For the reception of M. Marin's speech in the U. S. Senate, see Page 3.