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Show ILOYOOEK M TIGHT PLACE If Genoa Meet Fails Nortchliffe Will Fight Harder By WILLIAM BIRD (Copyright. 1922, by The Standard Examiner.) PARIS, May 13. Between Lloyd George's efforts to mako Genoa an occasion oc-casion to discredit Lord Norihcliffe and Toineare'H zeal to find the opportunity oppor-tunity lor torpedoing Barthou, chairman chair-man of the French delegation, the Genoa conference has drifted in a whirlpool of absurdities irora which it can h" saved only bv lar moie skillful maneuvering than Lloyd George h;s exhibited to date. The wildest absurdity thus far has been France's insistence on the Rus sians giving a categorical yes or no reply to the document guaranteeing private properly, the same on which France at first said yes, then hesitated hesi-tated and finally said no. One would have thought that if the Russians had finally rejected the document they replied in a manner to leave the way open for further discussions (hey would have been in exactly the same position as is France, but Franco emphasized em-phasized the ridiculousness of her position po-sition by Insisting that Russia approve wh.tt she herself rejected. DOING WITHOUT FRANCE Hardly less absurd Is the ardor wherewith tho official press of Eug land continued to threaten Ihe rupture rup-ture of the entente after Lloyd George specifically had denied uttering or even thinking BOCb a threat. This is matched by the ofiicial French press! which asserts that Barthou's obliging endorsement of Lloyd George's denial ' is purely diplomatic and, indeed, crit-, Icised Barthou for saving Lloyd George's face al Wickham Steeds' expense. ex-pense. It 1s known here that what Lloyd: George really said was that if France actually left the conference it woulrl continue without her This makes un-1 important whether he actually used! any of the other words attributed to him. It simply means that England Is determined to reopen the world trade routes with French help, if possible, pos-sible, without help if necessary. BACK AT OLD GAME If this is Lloyd George's position as his friends declare, then many weeks would have been gained by announcing an-nouncing it at the outset When the conference opened he won world-wide applause by saying that Genoa was not divided Into victors and vanquished, into entente and enemies, into belligerents bel-ligerents and neutrals, but that all were equal. But before his words had Ceased to echo in the Palazzo Sangior gio's marble halls he was back at hia old game of fixing things in private conferences. Finally the entente, which theoretically did not exist at Genoa, got together and framed a peremptory memorandum to Its theoretical equals, tho Russians. This wa a plain revision re-vision to the old supreme council methods. The result la that instead of the', Russians being embarrassed it is thej ent ente that is split and the blame : '.ll.- upon Lloyu I'-vir . in .t .-.d of the i Y' rich simply because he did not stick to hia equality principle. PUBLIC FAVOR LOST The British premier is in th1 tightest tight-est place in his entire political career. Instead t discrediting Northcliffe be has boosted him into a strong position posi-tion while the very critical blaats jot the Daily Mail, hitherto frowned I upon by Britishers who resent criticism criti-cism oi their own representative during dur-ing negotiations with foreign powers are now applauded because of the be-I be-I lief that Lloyd George is wilfully j shattering thp entente. Undoubtedly j thp premier quickly could demolish this argument if he returned to Encr-j Encr-j land lor a flying trip as many of his friends are urging He readily could I show that unemployment Is incurable without trade and that trade must be had if it meant abandoning France but It Is difficult to do this from Genoa as most newspapers have relegated the conference to the inside pages The coming week doubtless will witness wit-ness a tremendous effort to save the conference and his own political skin by a series of political maneuvers. Thus far he has not shown his greatest great-est strength or skill. Has he last bis own wizardry or is he keeping in reserve? re-serve? Doubtless Polncare is glad he is not there to learn at first hand. He feels safer at the Qual D'Oraay writing letters designed to keep the record straight and to provide alibis in case of rupture. |