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Show IS STARTED Bl GEN. DAWES MEN OF MANY NATIONS OPEN MEETING TO INVESTIGATE GERMAN FINANCES Conference Is Opened on Strictly Business Basis With Politics Forgotten; Many Distinguished Distinguish-ed Persons Present Taris, With Brigadier General Charles G. Dawes presiding, leading business men and financiers of the United States. Great Britain, France, Belgium and Italy, sitting as a board of directors and creditors began to examine the assets and liabilities of Germany, their nation's dubtor, with a view to saving something from the ruins of the most stupendous bankruptcy bank-ruptcy in the history of the world. "Strictly business and no politics," was the motto under which these representative re-presentative men of the leading nations na-tions of the old and new worlds assembled. as-sembled. "The success of this committee," said General Dawes in opening the meeting, "depends chiefly on whether in the public mind and conscience of the allies and of the world there is an adequate conception of the great disaster dis-aster which faces each ally and Europe Eur-ope unless common sense is crowned king." General Dawes stressed the value of unity of command in war to show the bad effects of present conditions. 'We had 'come to know," he said, 'in common with the citizens of all nations, that at last that lack of power to agree upon a common attitude atti-tude and common action had brought all Europe to a most critical and dangerous situation. This is no time to mince words." The first meeting was absolutely lacking in any of the military display dis-play which marked the conferences at Spa, ,San Remo and Genoa. Not a single soldier was in evidence. Louis Barthou, president of the reparations re-parations commission, delivered the address of welcome. "We do not expect from you," he said, "the unlooked for miracle of the solution of the reparation problem, but we hope with sincere confidence that your competency, experience and authority will concentrate to hasten the result onward which we are bending bend-ing all our efforts." European credit, General Dawes said, had suffered a shock as the world had seen Germany's economic life ebbing, "because," he added, "the world realizes that if the German people lose their capacity for work German loses her capacity to pay those reparations which are so great an element in Euopean solvency. Let us first help Germany to get well," General Dawes spoke of the committee com-mittee as 'practical men free from political pressure," who, realizing that the house is afire,' propose to find some water to put it out without further use of mathematics involving the fourth dimension. General Dawes praised the reparations repar-ations commission's idea in giving the committee of experts a free hand and said that the committee was not asked to determine the legality of the Ruhr occupation or 'the political politi-cal effect of this or that act of common com-mon sense." The committee for the moment, he said, was less concerned con-cerned with Germany's capacity to pay "than with the present capacity and courage of this committee to act." |
