The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-01-15

COnttHuc0 from fuUc FobT.
STA. Her security would disappear
for she would face a Germany of
more than 100000, 900 of people with
not more than 100000 on her
own soil. Even Holland and Bel
GUM would soon drift into this
economic superstate, German con-
trolled, which would arise in the
center of Europe.
Tive ThinGs Clash.
Now France. and the peoples of
the succession states" have no de-
sire and no intention OF permitting
this superstate to be created. Talk
about militarism has gone to great
lengths in the United States, but
there has been little clear appre-
citation of the actual issues in Eu-
ropes You have TO see that two
things are in direct clash. the prin-
ciple of natfonalism and the princi-
pie of economic efficiency. Britain
cares nothing for the national in
stincts or aspirations of the newly
liberated. peoples for the simple
reason that her own existence turns
on the economic not the Nationalist
tic conditions of Europe. France
cares little for the economic, for
she is sufficient unto herself eco
nomically, feeds her population and
lives with little regard to what
goes on in the markets of the
world.
France has set out to make Eu-
rope safe for her own people and
for the mailer peoples, because IL
she can pulrthe new states through
their first years she believes they
will presently be able to walk alone,
and when that day comes, the dan
ger Of German attack upon France,
of German domination in Europe
will have vanished. Her army is
the insurance of the small states,
but their armies are a detail in the
scheme and a present aid to France
in case. of German aggression.
What Britain Fears.
Britain would disband the armies.
bring economic system back at the
sacrifice Of national instincts. She
would open the ways to commerce
at the expense of the patriotic
hopes of the several nations which
have Just won free of tyranny and
are painfully at work erecting ma
tiona1 foundations. If the French
system prevails, Britain will suffer
a terrible diminution in population
and prosperity. Millions of her peo-
pie will have to migrate because
they can no longer ind work at
home. But IL the British policy
prevails, Poland, Rumania, Czecho-
Slovakia and Jugo-Slavia may en-
dure but brief time and the French
stay on the Rhine be measured by
a few years.
Britain sees Europe as an eco
nomic problem, France as political
problem. The British solution seems
to France to promise political ruin.
not only to France but to all the
smaller nationalities, who see the
thing as do the French. But the
British see that IL the French view
prevails. II the French army con-
tinues to. hold down the German
giant, while the smaller states get
strength but postpone economic re-
construction, then the outlook for
Britain is grim in the extreme.
Not Easy to Coerce France. II
Hence II must be obvious that II
VIII snot be easy to break the
French position. France has her
army. she has her Polish alliance
and Poland Is united with many of
the other states by interlocking al
liances. For three years the British
have sought to break the French
holds. They tried at Paris, they
tried even harder in Washington in
the later conference, seeking to get
American assistance in forcing re-
duction OF the French army. Fall
Ing there they encountered the sub.
marine which was the final retort
OF France to the continued British
assault upon the French army.
Americans are prone to- accept
too readily all the talk about French
policy on the continent and of Brit
sh policy of of it. The British at
Tack upon the French army IL notl