NEWS OF THE WEEK.
.1AiLT last Germany has spontaneously made an offer °Preparations. We cannot call it a good one, but as it undoubtedly offers several hopeful opportunities for negotiation we learn with all the more regret that France seems to be in the mood to turn it down without even discussing it. It is inconceivable that such a policy of negation could come from men who• were primarily bent upon obtaining what all the rest of us most desire— peace. Germany, very much in accordance with the Bergmann scheme, offers 11,500,000,000, to be paid as follows :—£1,000,000,000 by 1927, another £250,000,000 by 1929, and the final £250,000,000 by 1981. An inter- national loan would be raised for the purpose. Delivery of payments in kind would continue as before. In return Germany asks that, as soon as the plan is accepted, the French should evacuate the occupied area. As regards security, Germany proposes a general non-aggression pact. The fatal objections from the French point of view are that Germany does not offer enough money ; that she demands evacuation before any money is paid ; and that she does not give definite pledges of payment.
