San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-11
BRITAIN MUST
!. TAKE STAND IN
F. RUHR INVASION
Bonar Law Confronted With
Necessity for Announc-
ing New Policy.
AT END OF THE WAY
France Must Be Made to
Realize Position as a
Debtor Nation.
AT END OF THE WAY
By A. G.. GARDINER.

London, Feb. 1O.-Parliament reas-
sembles Tuesday. The country awaits
with great anxiety the breaking of
silence by the government on the ire
mendous situation confronting it. Dur
ing the recess Premier Bonar Law
could remain silent. Now he must
speak.
What will he say? For the formula
, of benevolent neutrality" no longer is
defensible. Neutrality here is simply
nm evasion Of the issue which remains
while events sweep the nation onward.
Day by day France sinks deeper into
the Ruhr mire. Her failure to secure
the good will of the German workmen
has defeated her original policy. Not
more reparations but less. Not more
coal. but none. The strangehOld on
Germany and on German industry has
been found to be a stranglehOld on
French manufacture.
The result is ali pretense of civil oc-
cupation has disappeared. Ruthlessness
is growing hourly and undisguised mil
itary occupation is imminent. Shoot
ings, suppression of newspapers, depor-
tations of leading officials, seventies Of
all kinds now are daily occurrences.
Extension of French activities to Ba-
den, a hundred miles distant from the
Ruhr, indicates that all regard for the
treaty and restraints of all kinds have
been abandoned.
Poincare Must 60 On.
Having failed TO carry through the
mutilation Of Germany by peaceful
means, Poincare now is faced with the
alternative of withdrawing and con-
Tossing defeat, or of adopting naked
force to achieve his end. 1t seems
clear his present intention is to go on
regardless of consequences. The al
Tentative would mean political extinc-
zion and POincare has no such desire.
Can Bonnr Law continue benevolent
ly neutral in the face of these develop
ments? Can England leave her troops
in Cologne while France tramples on
the policy which their presence there
represents? Can England suffer long
er the humiliation of being represented
on the reparations commission which
has become a mere department of the
Quai dOrsay? Impossible!
- But how shall we withdraw and what
action will follow?
The answer is not easy. The bed
rock fact in the situation is discreetly
left undiscussed. But it is in all minds.
France has established unchallenged
the military dominance of Europe. So
far as force is concerned she is able
TO do as she pleases. She knows this
We know it. Hence our sense of impo-
tence.
France Must Consider Debts.
But France cannot rely exclusively
upon the authority of force. There are
moral considerations. Still more i'm
portant there are economic conSidera-
tons. Signs are not wanting that the
financial arrangements made between
the United States and Great Britain
are creating an effect in French minds.
France owes money to England as well
as to America and realizes she cannot
permanently ignore that fact and re-
tain her place among nations which re-
spect their liabilities.
The English position is clear. She
cannot pay her debt to America and
cancel that which France owes her.
This consideration may assume a new
inspect in view Of the French operations
in Germany. There she not only is
destroying British trade. but any pros
poet of Britain ever collecting repara-
fions. England, therefore, has n many
sided interest in the Ruhr drama.
France is Staying her own goose as
well as ours, and killing it with money
which belongs to England and Amer
lea. This grotesque situation cannot
continue indefinitely. England sees
one of her debtors reduced to bank
ruptcy by another Of her debtors who
pleads she is too poor to pay, but is
able to maintain the greatest army any
nation ever kept in Europe in peace
times.
The English nation expects the pre-
mier TO approach the situation from
this angle. Since France ignores our
advices and our interests she must pay
her way as we pay ours. This aspect
If the matter has taken strong hold
in the minds of the public. Parliament
will look OF Bonar Law to face it cour-
sgeously.