"Conference of Liquidation"

Half the finance ministers in Europe and the "Big Three'' foreign ministers--Briand, Henderson and Stresemann--sped to Queen Wilhelmina's placid Hague, last week, convened in august session, and grappled with two Goliath problems: 1) They proposed to put into operation by Sept. 1 next the potent Young Plan, recently drafted by J. P. Morgan and other tycoons at Paris (TIME, May 13, et seq.); and 2) They were bent on achieving an international agreement whereby the allied troops in the German Rhineland can be withdrawn before the end of 1929.

Chances of success depended much on the leading plenipotentiaries, but even more perhaps on the situation which each had left behind in his own capital. These were:

Paris. The new French Cabinet (TIME, Aug. 5) had just received a thumping vote of confidence, 325 to 136 The sweeping character of this victory was due to abstention from voting by the Radical Socialists. Their benevolent neutrality had been purchased by Prime Minister Aristide Briand at a stiff price. He was obliged to present a law, and the Chamber immediately voted it, cutting the taxes on French foodstuffs $20,000,000 per annum. As Finance Minister Henri Cheron traveled with his chief to The Hague, he was doubtless figuring how he will keep the French budget in balance without the $20,000,000.

The interlude in the Chamber of Deputies had been hectic, but Prime Minister & Foreign Minister Aristide Briand arrived at The Hague with virtually a free hand--for the duration of the Conference. France is rapidly becoming reconciled to the idea of prompt withdrawal of her troops from the Rhineland, and the Chamber had given Big Briand virtually a mandate to insist that the Young Plan be put into operation promptly, and exactly as drafted.

London. Easygoing, casual Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson and hard bitten, incisive Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden were both under compelling pressure from London banking interests, last week, when they arrived to represent the Empire at The Hague.

Under the Young Plan it is proposed to handle Germany's stupendous reparations payments through an International Bank of Settlement ("I. B. S."), and throughout Britain both financiers and the public appear fearful that London's agelong fiscal prestige may suffer if the "I. B. S." should be established elsewhere. "Moral indignation"; was likewise rife on British editorial pages at what was deemed the "unfair share" of German Reparations allotted to His Majesty's Exchequer under the Young Plan.

All these points of pressure suggested that peppery Chancellor Snowden would spice the Conference with protests and objections. It was not expected, however, that he or Foreign Secretary Henderson would oppose speedy evacuation of the Rhineland, unless by threatening opposition they could win fiscal concessions.

Berlin. With Chancellor Hermann Mueller still an invalid, and with President Paul von Hindenburg dormant, smart Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann might almo st have exclaimed, "I am the State!" as he entrained for The Hague. Primarily his job would be to stand pat on the keystone of his foreign policy: If the Allies refuse to promise speedy evacuation of the Rhineland, then Germany must refuse to bind herself under the Young Plan.

Rome. The only important, ex-cathedra pronouncement on the Young Plan last week came from the Government of Signor Benito Mussolini. An official cabinet communique to the press read:

"It is obvious that the Young Plan represents a compromise based on reciprocal concessions. . . . As its authors clearly stated, all its parts are intimately bound one to the other. Each part is valueless if divorced from the others."

The Italian Government has examined the Young Plan, keeping these facts in mind, and is ready to accept it as an indivisible whole, provided the other governments accept it also, with the aim of thus aiding the economic and political reconstruction of Europe."

When Italian Finance Minister Antonio Mosconi reached The Hague it was obvious that his instructions left him about as much leeway as though he were an animated rubber stamp. The real Italian negotiant, volpine and omnipresent was Signor Dino Grandi, nominally UnderSecretary for Foreign Affairs, actually the intimate, personal representative of the Dictator. He would see that the message of the rubber stamp was altered (if advisable) by a direct order from Rome.

Washington. One Edwin C. Wilson went to The Hague as U. S. observer. Nine short years ago he was an ex-Second Lieutenant looking for a job. Signing on with the Diplomatic Service, he rose in four years to a dizzy but obscure eminence: Chief Clerk at the State Department. In 1926 he went to the Paris Embassy, remained there until last week, when Statesman Stimson despatched him to The Hague--to watch, report.