of the Belgian priority and other items, the amount of cash to which
France will be entitled in the near future, even if the payments fixed
last March were to be paid in full, is quite trifling.


A POLICY FOR THE LIBERAL PARTY

So much for the immediate situation and the politics of the case. If we
look forward a little, I venture to think that there is a clear, simple,
and practical policy for the Liberal Party to adopt and to persist in.
Both M. Poincaré and Mr. Lloyd George have their hands tied by their
past utterances. Mr. Lloyd George's part in the matter of Reparations is
the most discreditable episode in his career. It is not easy for him,
whose hands are not clean in the matter, to give us a clean settlement.
I say this although his present intentions appear to be reasonable. All
the more reason why others should pronounce and persist in a clear and
decided policy. I was disappointed, if I may say so, in what Lord Grey
had to say about this at Newcastle last week. He said many wise things,
but not a word of constructive policy which could get any one an inch
further forward. He seemed to think that all that was necessary was to
talk to the French sympathetically and to put our trust in international
bankers. He puts a faith in an international loan as the means of
solution which I am sure is not justified. We must be much more concrete
than that, and we must be prepared to say unpleasant things as well as
pleasant ones.

The right solution, the solution that we are bound to come to in the
end, is not complicated. We must abandon the claim for pensions and
bring to an end the occupation of the Rhinelands. The Reparation
Commission must be asked to divide their assessment into two parts--the