The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-11-22
BRAND DEFENDS
FRANCE AGAINST
PROPAGANDA in US.
His Appeal Designed to
Justify Army, Says
Simonds.
By FRANK H. SIMONDS.

In the larger sense the speech Of
NJ BRAND yesterday was an iso-
lated episode. The conference had
tacitly resolved TO avoid the ques-
ton Of land armaments as a prac-
tical problem. 1t was not to save
but TO Justify the army of France.
assailed by a hostile propaganda in
the conference in Washington. that
the French prime minister made
what must be regarded as the chief
oratorical effort of the present
gathering.
Long ago the American repre-
sentatives at the conference recoE-
nized the fact that only one action
would warrant them in recommend
ing or urging reduction in the
French army. That action was the
ratification by the United States
Senate of the treaty of insurance
which President Wilson gave 10 NJ.
Clemenceau at Paris, and at all
tines and under all circumstances
Mr.. Hughes and his associates per
ceived that such an action was i'm
possible; therefore. the question OF
land armaments was academic.
Answers Foes of France
The purpose of NJ. Brands ad-
dress. then, was twofold: He ap-
pealed TO. the American public to
understand the condition Of France.
the circumstances in which the war
had left her. the perils which she
saw visibly and disturbingly. In
this respect the speech was an an
swer TO all that stream Of propa-
ganda, insinuation and denuncIa-
| tion which from a thousand sources
| has flowed steadily and uninter-
ruptedly since the Paris conference.
Specifically it was an answer. and
direct answer. to those attacks
which II. G. Wells and half a dozen
other British journalists have open
ly or covertly launched at French
policy since the Washington con-
ference began.
In the largest possible sense. "
BRAND appealed to the United
States to see French conditions as
Frenchmen see them. to see in the
| French army not an instrument OF
\ aggression, not a weapon of chsu-
vinism. but one more of the bur
| dens imposed upon France by prox-
within fifty years had carried FIRE
and sword into the fairest prov
inces of a peaceful neiGhbor.
To Justify His Policies
1t was to make this speech that
NJ. BRAND came to the United
States. He staked his political pres
ert and his political future upon
this single effort to carry to the
United States a full and precise
statement Of French views and
French conditions.
The second purpose of the BRAND
speech was Enthusiastically to sup
ply to his own countrymen at home
and to the unfriendly chamber OF
deputies which he must face a few
days hence, a justification for his
coming here and for all of his poll
cies during the time he has held
office.
| For any one who has read the
comments of the British and French
| Journalists who have come here
for the Washington conference 4,
has been unmistakable that Anglo
! French relations at this moment
are worse than at any time since
July. 1914, and indeed since the
signing of the Anglo-French agree
ment of 1904 which made the en-
tente cordiale possible and led ul-
timately to the defeat of Germany
Openly and by indirection there
has been carried on here from the
first days of the conference a cam
paign on the part Of certain British
journalists TO rouse American pref
udice and hostility to the French
military establishment. The hope
openly expressed by some British