Events at the Hague Conference were in such a desperate snarl last week as Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden continued bickering for a bigger piece in the reparations "sponge cake" (TIME, Aug. 12 et seq.), that progress could best be traced in terms of personages:
Thomas William Lamont. First authoritative word that choleric Chancellor Snowden was losing the support of British financiers came at London from Thomas William Lamont, brisk, decisive, crinkly-eyed partner of J. P. Morgan & Co. Chatting with a correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune—a paper on which he once worked as a reporter—Mr. Lamont said that, although "The City" (financial London) at first strongly backed Chancellor Snowden's demand for £2,000,000 per annum more sponge cake, there was now lively apprehension lest that same demand should wreck the Conference and prevent adoption of the Young Plan. "They feel," said Mr. Lamont, allowing himself to be directly quoted, "that failure to reach some agreement would mean international derangement. They feel it would endanger the gold standard [of Sterling] and would threaten British financial losses far greater than £2,000,000 a year—or £2.000.000 a day.'"
Clearly the existence of such a state of mind meant that last week "The City" was putting heavy pressure on the Labor Cabinet of Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, and through him on Chancellor Snowden. As Mr. Lamont left London to sail on the Olympic for Manhattan, his cheerful air kindled confidence among businessmen that "The City" would yet put things right.
Gustav Stresemann. The Hague Conference was called to put into operation the Young Plan (TIME, June 10) which fixed for the first time the total Germany must pay in Reparations. Neither Chancellor Snowden nor anyone else has made the slightest objections to this basic feature of the Plan. The whole quarrel at The Hague has been among the Creditor Powers, squabbling over how big a slice each could get. Abruptly last week the squabbling delegates were reminded of the basic-issue by Germany's Foreign Minister, bold, astute Dr. Gustav Stresemann.
In a speech potent and ringing. Dr. Stresemann demanded that that major portion of the Young Plan which fixes what Germany must pay be immediately ratified because: 1) It was approved by all; 2) The date on which the Young Plan was designed to supersede the old Dawes Plan was Sept. 1; 3) All German budgetary arrangements had been made in good faith to pay Reparations on the Young Plan scale which is $132,000,000 less per average year than the Dawes Plan scale; 4) The expert drafters of the Young Plan declared that it represents the utmost practical capacity of Germany to pay; 5) Therefore to expect Germany to go on paying under the Dawes Plan "more than her utmost capacity to pay" would be an intolerable injustice, and Dr. Stresemann declared passionately: "To such an injustice my country cannot submit!"
Queen Wilhelmina. So sunk were the Creditor Powers in the slough of their quarrel that Dr. Stresemann's protest was utterly ignored. The Conference did not get back on the highroad of common sense until a jolly royal banquet had been tendered to all concerned by sensible, buxom, motherly Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.