New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-12-07
Turning to Foch

OIlAAalS 10 OCIl
Marshal Foch is again figuring in
the peace conference bulletins. The
Supreme Council takes time to con-
suit him. 1t is even turning toward
him eagerly as the one person
through whom the peace treaty can
be made actually operative.
This is marked reversal Of its
former attitude; for hitherto it
had consistently disregarded Foch' s
views on the essentials of peace.
Foch's idea was that France was
entitled to a peace of victory-to
adequate military guarantees for
the future. The conference had
other plans. in which the French
peace delegates acquiesced-possibly
against their better judgment. A
peace was made whose enforcement
was to be left, in the main, to moral
suasion, operating through a league
Of nations. That sort of pressure
would probably never have been
equal to compelling Germany to pay
the penalties imposed on her. The
moral prestige of the league doesn't
overawe Germany even now, since
she is refusing to sign the final pro-
tocol ending the armistice and put
ting the treaty into effect. The
council is, therefore, compelled to
seek Marshal Foch's aid-that is,
to borrow the military power of
France to enforce German submits
sion.
Germany may yield hurriedly to
Foch's threat or to an actual demon
stration on the right bank of the
Rhine toward Essen. But German
resistance to the treaty provisions
will continue for years, and France
will have to furnish the great bulk
Of the military forces through whose
presence in the Rhineland alone the
German obligations can be liqui-
dated.
Foch wanted it otherwise. He ad-
vocated liquidation in territory. He
also favored a league military staff,
empowered to organize and employ
armies. The conference baked at
extending the French boundary to
the Rhine. 1t also turned down the
international general staff scheme as
relic Of "militarism. So France
now finds that she was made the
victim of political illusions.
General Cherfils, the distinguished
French military critic, wrote re-
Gently:
THE treaty Of peace does not cor.
respond to the cost Of our victory
1t leaves the principal winner
France, decimated and impover.
'shed-struggling with difficultie.
more burdensome even than those OF
the war period. BY singular aber-
ration it has strengthened the unity
Of Germany, while breaking up tn,
Austrian federation, although the
wisdom of history enjoined directl,
contrary course The peace treat,
Is the revenge Of the parliame ntars
spirit against the military spirit
That preoccupation. more solicitor:
of party than of national welfare
was betrayed in the declaration O.
the principal author Of the treaty
We wanted to make treaty which
would prove that militarism doesn'
pay"
French "militarism" did nav
Without it the Entente would have
been wrecked. 1t saved Europe from
Teuton domination. Against Foch'.
warnings the Paris Conferenc,
sought to set up moral substitute
for it. Now, even before the nev
order is initiated, the conferenc,
has recourse to Foch and the Frencl
armies to make that order march
There is no other way, in fact, to ge
Germany to work out her sentence
She will submit now to military com
pulsion. And through the long years
o. her servitude she will submit tx
nothing else.