The Washington herald., 1922-05-14

direction events were taking. They
saw that BRAND had involved himself
and his country and they turned
against him. The fall OF BRAND was.
In reality. the final rssolt Of the
French nation aginst British control
Of its foreign policy. It was q dis
aster for Lloyd Ge0ge beyond any
thing which has happened in his six
years Of power.
Poincare's policy at Genoa has been
no more than a logical fidelity to this
French sentiment. To be sure. in
consentine to go to Genoa, Poincare
invited attack and ran large risks.
Had Lloyd George prevailed over
Poincare, as he well might IL the
French premier had gone to Genoa,
we should certainly have had a
change of ministry. for the French
legislature as at present constituted
Is resolved not to surrender to Lloyd
George. As It stands. Poincare has
perhaps escaped but only by blocking
each British maneuver almost at
its inception.
Entente Out of Existence.
In America we are still accustomed
TO talk of the Anglo-French entente
as necessary to world peace and to
cherish the Illusion that It still exists
But you do not have to tarry long
either in London or in Paris to
realize that the entente has ceased
to exist and that since Fasheda,
Anglo French feelings have not been
so bitter. On one side a larg num-
ber of Englishmen tell you quite
frankly that in the last war Britain
backed the wrong horse" This
means the speakers think II would
have been better IL the British had
supported Germany in 1914. On the
other side of the channel French
tell you that all British policy is
directed at running France.
Lay aside all these extreme
statements and the fact still re-
mains that the underlying inter-
ests of Britain and of France are
exactly opposite: that the success
Of British policy means the ruin OF
France and the triumph Of French
policy spells the decadence of
Britain as an industrial nation and
therefore, as great power. I'm
less Britain can get France out of
the road British recovery will at
best be terribly long and at worst
may not come in time.
Think France Must Yield.
Yet in the United States one en-
counters over and over again the
illusion that in some mysterious
way France will be compelled to
yield; that the threat Of isolation
VIII coerce her. But France is iso-
lated SO far as Britain and even
the United States are concerned
ana accepts this fact reluctantly
but frankly. But never for a mo-
ment does she connect the fact Of
isolation with any wrongdoing or
false reasoning on her part. Quite
the contrary, France feels that she
is Isolated because her rights inter
fere with the selfish interests Of
the two English-speaking nations
She feels that she has been marked
down as the sacrifice necessary to
the restoration OF our markets
Three years and more ago. at
Paris, many OF my American
friends. both journalists and mem
bers Of the peace commission, all
under the spell Of British reason
ing, We're accustomed to tell me
that France. in the end, would have.
to back down and yield. Who can
picture their amazement and hor-
ror when. instead of yielding,
Clemenceau forced Mr.. Wilson to
give the treaty of Insurance, the
guarantee to consent to the occu-
patton of the left bank of the Rhine
and to the Sarre Basin compromise.
Many of these colleagues of mine.
at once began to censure Mr.. will
son as having surrendered where
he might have conquered. Moth
ing is more inaccurate. have
never been a champion of Mr.. will
sons Paris procedure, but his choice
at that moment was between COM
ing home and yielding.
VIII Lead to Disaster.
| 1t may well be. even Frenchmen
will concede this. that the present
French policy will lead to national
disaster. But while foreigners con-
tinue to emphasize this fact they
fail to reckon with the French cal
culation that any other course, any
such course as Lloyd George advo-
Gates. will lead to immediate ship
wreck; that France, and France
| alone. will be destroyed. while her
enemies and friends alike regain
their old prosperity. Therefore the
arguments advanced so frequently
in familiar sources that France
must in the end see her own inter-
est as we see it, falls to the
ground.