The Brunswick news., 1921-12-02
CAN FRANcE BE. BLAMED?

arms and that she hates Franre, with
! all of the bitterness of her soul.
| France has memory; she does not
forget Sedan and that march to Paris
some fifty-one years ago; she recalls
all THAI has happened since that time
and as her next door neighbor, she
knows Germany better than any one
else in the world knows her!
1t is easy enough for English
newspapers to assert that France, by
her stand, is endangering the success
Of the Harding arms meet. 1t is equal
iy easy for italian and American ed
itors to proclaim Frances misdeeds
and Frances Imperialism.
But, it should also be equally easy
to understand that there would be a
very different story to tell if the
Hughes naval plan had contemplated
pulling England's navy down to a
point where it would be no stronger
than that of one of her opponents in
the later world war. In such case,
does any one imagine that England
would have so readily accepted the
schedule Hughes proposes? On the
other hand, does not everyone know
that she would have done no such
thing that she would have repudiat-
ed it without even considering it for
a moment?
If the United States had just finish
ed war with Mexico, which she all
but lost, and in which we would have
been beaten but for assistance from
Europe, can anyone imagine the
United States cutting her army to one
half the size of the force Mexico could
raise within fortnight, simply be-
sause some European nation suggest
ed it? ~
1t is easy enough to endorse plan
in the abstract and to clamor for it's
sdoption when 1t means nothing to us.
II would be an entirely different mat
ter, however, If the adoption of the
plan night leave the way clear for the
repetition in the United States of what
France underwent for four. long,
bloody years.
England can endorse Hughes land
armament reduction scheme because
England has already cut her army to
where 1t is not Objectionable. She
needs no big army with the biggest
navy in the world. The Hughes shoe
does not pinch her foot. Therefore
she Is willing for the whole world to
wear It. The same Is true with the
United States and with Italy.
With France, however, the matter
assumes very different aspect. There
Is only the Rhine between her and the
Hun whose militarlstic spirit is curb
ed, not vanquished; whose unfulfllled
peace treaty promises prove her sense
of honor to be exactly Of the same
grade as that that held the Belgian
treaty to be q worthless piece ef pa
per, Across the Rhine is the same
Hun whose armies stayed In France
following the Franco-Prussian war un
til the uttermost farthing OF the in
demnity France promised was paid in
full.
Today, this same Germany Is using
every device known 20 the unserup-
ulous to evade payment of her just
debt TO France. one moment she OPP
emily. brazenly defiantly announces
that she win not pay. The next, she
whiningly protests that she cannot,
The while, however she does not, and
undoubtedly she win not unless
French armies continue to hold Ger
man territory and force her Is make
partial restitution for the ruthless de.
struetion she visited on the helpless
peoples she trod underfoot from 1914
to 1918,
Yet. In spite of all this, France is
being castigated for refusing to cut
her army In half.
TO do so, would be the height Of
folly, In refusing to do so, France has
the sympathetic support Of the vast
bulk Of the peoples OF the world who
wish TO see Germany pay for her pas;
misdeeds.