Caillaux's Commission

The Picture:

"Here are fruits, here are flowers, leaves and branches, and here is my heart which beats only for you."

(signed) Joseph Caillaux

So reads a card in the possession of Hope Hampton, cinema actress, and well she earned it.

For one September morning the liner Paris steamed into New York harbor and the Statue of Liberty looked down on a very neatly dressed gentleman. He wore white gloves and tan shoes. He carried an ivory headed malacca cane. His shirt and collar were of a delicate shade of blue. His cravat was blazoned in red and green. He wore a dark blue suit and atop his head concealing the shining mass of his cranium sat a green felt hat, soft, pour le sport.

This elegantly costumed gentleman who was the cynosure of all eyes on the Paris had affronted Miss Hampton. For it was indeed true that he had been photographed aboard ship with Gilda Gray (Mrs. Gaillard T. Boag) but no camera had included in one glimpse him with Hope Hampton. As the ship proceeded up the harbor, the well-dressed gentleman was photographed alone, with his soft green felt hat on his head, and with the little green hat removed, and with Myron T. Herrick, and with Emile Daeschner, and with Under Secretary of the Treasury Winston.

Finally Miss Hampton, thoroughly provoked walked into the middle of the group and took up her stand by the little elegantly dressed man with the green hat--all ready to be photographed.

But the gentleman, declining to be so honored, turned abruptly to Mr Jules Brulatour, who happens to be Miss Hampton's husband, and declared: "Your wife is a most charming woman, my dear Mr. Brulatour. But perhaps it would not be opportune for her to be photographed in an official group of the French Mission."

So Miss Hampton richly deserved her little autographed card signed "Joseph Caillaux."

The Man. The little Frenchman also convened with the reporters who had come aboard. He asserted:

"I am very hopeful of a settlement. Why should I have come otherwise?"

"Do you think it can be settled in a few days?"

"I hope so."

"That means fast work in Washington."

"Aha! I do everything so quickly!"

A reporter from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle edged to the front:

"There is a good deal of misapprehension in this country as to what you were convicted of. [Referring to M. Caillaux's conviction and exile but recently ended for defeatism during the War.] We know it was not treason, but--"

"I am here," flared up Mr. Caillaux "as Minister of Finance for my country. I will talk about that and nothing else!"

Again the reporter began to speak. Again M. Caillaux halted him. "Speak more plainly and do not swallow your words so. Those are two faults I find in many Americans."

"Your excellency," began the reporter.

"Don't call me that."

"M'sieur."

"No, not that either. Call me Mister or Mr. Minister. That will be all right."

When the ship docked, M. Caillaux went for a walk on Filth Ave., before his train was ready at the Pennsylvania Station.

"The impression I received, declared, "was one of great power and wealth."

The French Attitude. There was high hope in the French Mission as it came to negotiate for settlement of the French War Debt to the U. S.--high hope of a low settlement. The Mission of course said little except "Hope." But it was accompanied by two journalists -- Stephane Lauzanne, Editor of Le Matin, and Pertinax, Foreign Editor of L'Echo de Paris... Those two gentlemen were voluble in their protestations. They exhibited an entire unwillingness to believe that the U. S. demand for payment in full on something like the terms to Great Britain was serious. Mr. Lauzanne went so far as to retail a rather malicious story:

Let us not forget that our American friends are great experts in trading. They love trading as they love sport. A curious story I heard today is an illustration of that fact. The story is too good not to be true.

When Mr. Baldwin in 1922, reached the United States, several members of the American War Debt Commission had figured out that it would be very hard to obtain from Great Britain, for the funding of her debt, an interest superior to 2%. They had in a sense resigned themselves to such a low interest. To their great astonishment, they heard Mr. Baldwin propose himself an interest of 2 1/2%.

Of course the American negotiators jumped at a much higher rate and coldly asked for a 5% interest. A lively discussion followed. Finally some one on the American side proposed:

"Well, let us cut the pear in two and say 3 1/2%."

In their inmost minds the Americans expected the British to oppose a desperate resistance and stick to their 21/2% proposal. To their renewed astonishment, the British did not. They rather quickly assented to 3 1/2%. And that is how today the rate of 2 1/2% has become a sort of sacred rate to be" imposed on all foreign debtors.

This is not the first time in history that the British have blundered in international negotiations and that their blunders have tied the hands of their allies.

The Negotiations. The progress of the negotiations in Washington was rapid. M. Caillaux arrived at the railroad station. A fleet of automobiles and a cumbersome delegation was waiting. He took off his green felt hat and was photographed. He told reporteds: " I shall be delighted to see you always, as many times as you want to see me, but I shan't say anything worth while, I am afraid."

Then he was spirited away to the French Embassy, washed his hands, rushed to the Treasury Department, spent half an hour with Mr. Mellon, went to the State Department, payed a courtesy call on Mr. Kellogg.

Next morning the French Mission met the U. S. negotiators in the Treasury Department.

Said M. Caillaux:

We do not forget, and no one in our country will ever forget, what we owe to America for her splendid work to end victoriously the War and for the generou. help our people received from citizens of the United States in time of need. Neither do we forget, and we feel sure nobody on this side of the Atlantic forgets, the ties knotted between both our countries at the end of the eighteenth century.

Said Mr. Mellon:

To establish the binding character of an international promise and to protect its own citizens, the creditor nation must seek adjustment. To keep good its word and to give itself time to recover its prosperity the debtor nation must determine its future liabilities. No concern can successfully be reorganized in the face of an unfunded demand obligation. So we meet here in council as business men to conclude the one matter which is in controversy between the two countries.

We were glad to receive the help which France extended to us when we were fighting for our independence and we were eager to make some return in France's own great need. The War is over, but we miminize neither the burdens France has borne nor the difficulties which menace her future.

Then M. Caillaux laid his offer on the table. Its exact terms were not made public, but in substance it was known: No specifications about principal or interest rates, but an offer to pay certain sums yearly--beginning with $25,000,000, closing at the end of 62 years with about $90,000,000. There was a little talk. Then everybody departed to reconvene at dinner in the White House.

Next day the Americans rejected the French terms, proposed counter-terms approximately the same as those the U.S. gave to Great Britain. On the whole the U.S. proposal was about three-quarters again as much as the French offer.

This time the French demanded time to think matters over. No official negotiations were held on either of the two succeeding days. But M. Caillaux and Mr. Mellon met for dinner at the home of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Winston, met again at luncheon at the French Embassy. "The Big Two are getting together!" whispered the press in headlines.

Meanwhile M. Caillaux had persisted in announcing that he would sail for Paris on the France at midnight on Oct. 2, clapping his green felt hat, soft, pour le sport, on his round bald head.