The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-19
PREDICTS FALL OF BRITAIN,
 M'CURDY CLAIMS $
Conditions Across Channel . Alarming, English States
 man Says French Believe

at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris when Pre- miers Baldwin and Poincare meet for private man-to-ma talk on reparations, aimed at clarifying the muddled situation that has threatened split between Europe's two most powerful nations.
 The French attitude has caused alarm in London. Poincare again reiterates his sfffotto in the Ruhr, Pay or we stay. England dsapproves of his policy; tension
 The following article therefore, possesses
 The view that France is looking for ward to the fall of the British empire and the rise of a French empire is expressed s'by the Right Hon. C. A. McCurdy, NJ P. chief whip of Lloyd Georges national lib- eral party. and former British food m nm ister The article was written in Paris after a study of the situation there. It shows the sonlber background of enmlty against which Wednesdays conference Will be staged.
 Rublished by leased wire oThe Age
 Herald through arrangement with Lon
 don Daily ChrOniele.)
 PARIS, Sept. 1S.-During the last three weeks I have been gathering impressions in France. l have had conversations with all sorts of French people. I have read all sorts of French journals. I have received everywhere courtesy and politeness. i have also received some surprises. a.I think I was most surprised when outside all the banks and agencies in France one day the impending end of the British empire was announced in the news summary of the day not as matter of opinion, but a simple matter of fact, side by side with the rates of exchange and the barometric pressure.
 Under the heading England" the French public were informed that as regards our industries the rate of production is still falling, unemploy- ment is still increasing, our colonies show increasing separatist tendencies, Britain itself is now defenseless against attack Nby air or by sub marines and the paragraph con- Sfffded:
 Ir-.@The generation which has passed through the great war will witness the fall of an empire
 Empire Of The Future.
 Facing me on the opposite wall was timely reference to the empire of the future, an appeal on behalf of the institute coloniale Francaise for all Frenchmen to rally round the great French overseas empire-with a black-iettered reference to the fact that the French colonies already sup ply 300,000 black troops for the im- perial armies.
 On the table was a copy of a Trench satirical journal with a half page picture of the world on Mer- cator's projection.
 The British empire was colored black-the the rest of the world whfte-and beneath the map was the legend:
 The black indicates the lands which Great Britain has already I,A icI he whit e tbe,lands she would like to steal"
 Truly we are not popular across the channel, and if we are doomed +e-disappear as a world power, there will apparently be few mourners in France.
 It is just as we'll that we know it, and if possible understand the mean ing of it.
 4 few months ago, in discussing the Ruhr, some people in this country used to say we must consider also the question of French security. 44t would not be wise for an Eng lfshman to say that to a chance &C., quaintance in Paris today.
 It would be resented as an inn pertinence.
 Relieves In Strength.
 .n7Flrance feels that she has no need to5discuss the question of her secur- jty She is in the position of Strong man armed in disarrned continent, conscious of her strength, believing also that in her own 3strength will be found her saliva tion and needing no help of ours.
 If security is to be dragged into the separations discussion, it will not be the security of France, but the security of Great Britain, now re- Rarded, perhaps rightly, as defense less against attack by air or by sub marines,
 Let England look to her own se- curity or "the generation which has passed through the great war will witness the fall of an empire" France, as a French journal puts it, is in no mood tG look to the Anglo Saxons for protection.
 It is not, however. our disarmed and defenseless condition, or our in dpstrial misfortunes, which make us SO unpopular; it is rather the points off which we still retain one advan- tage, the rate Of exchange so unfav- of-able to France, and'the balances of war debt owing to the United States of America and to this country.
 Nothing has excited so much bit ter feeling against this country as Mi. Baldwln's funding of the British debt to America.
 --Consider the position. We arc not the only debtor. The people Of this cointry felt, and the peoples of every OUneT ueDlOI COuHlIy IClA, liidN hio WAT debts were very special debts, with regard to which some arrange ment ought in justice to be made, not debts that ought fairly to be de- xfanded or paid in full.
 MT. Baldwin, by settling the British debt, without consultation with cur allies, on terms impossible for our allies to initiate, made their position difficult and humiliatinG.
 ssOur independent action "let down our friends" And they resent it. ATTheir view is that it paid MT. Bald win to do it, it helped to put up the British pound against the French franc and the Italian lire; it was for selfish purposes that the settlement was made. and M. Poincare has al Haady made it clear that he does not Intend to follow suit.
 This is what the French are really thinking about the two great ques- tions of security and allied debts. and prit cl1