THE PATIENT--EUROPE

In Lloyd George's triumphant defense of his policies before the House of Commons yesterday, he laid his finger with characteristically severe touch on the outstanding sore spot in European politics-the reparations problem. A large part of all the post-war difficulties centers about the amount of the payments exacted from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles; and yet, as Lloyd George has said, the treaties did not cause the reparations. Their creation is due to the fact that there is something to repair. If the Versailles compact is altered, the burden is merely shifted from Germany to France without solving the problem. In dealing with the whole question Britain, or that portion of Britain still controlled by Lloyd George, must be guided by two considerations. If payments are insisted upon beyond the power of Germany to pay, a collapse will of course result, which will extend far beyond Germany itself. But Germany's ultimate capacity to pay must not be judged by her present capacity, when, together with the rest of Europe, she is still struggling to recover from war exhaustion. Genoa cannot serve as a final word in dealing with the problem of reparations, because Genoa is too close to the present to obtain a proper perspective. But Genoa can serve as the repair shop in straightening out the wrecked machinery of international exchange. Lloyd George points out that Russia must acknowledge her obligations, because Germany cannot pay her reparations in full until Russia is restored to a secure economic basis-and without a steady reparations policy international exchange cannot be stabilized.

The whole problem is tied up in a knot, and the Genoa conference, if not a panacea, can be of great usefulness in untying it. The words of the prime minister may be prophetic: "I do not know who will succeed us, but whoever does will find it impossible in the present state of Europe to go on without conferences. The world is so battered, bruised, and crushed that the cure will be a slow one and will need many consultations of its leading physicians."