The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-18
SAY FRANCE .FOMENTS IDEA
 WITH PURPOSE
Britain's Fleet Can Dominate Mediterranean at Any Time It Becomes Necessary. France Even FIirtS
 With Germany

(England's grateful allies are prematurely gloatings over England's s prospective ruin, Sir Charles Ross, noted publicist and owner of the Lon don Outlook, declares in special article to The Age Herald through arrangement with the Outlook. France, the writer charges, is at tempting to isolate England and there are persistent rumors of coal itions of continental European pow CTS forming against England. Ross .declares that the rupture cordiale" twas formed when the Franco-Bel- gians marched into the Ruhr. Copy right, 1923, for The Age-Herald)
 LONDON, March live were vo- sciferously told from Paris, when Mir. Bonar Law declined to enter the Ruhr and the rupture cordiale was consummated, that Great Britain had isolated herself from the continent
 Ever since, the French, having won most doubtful and ha1f-hearted dip- lomatic adhesion, though no physical support, from Italy, and having dra- gooned Belgium, now an economic and military vassal of France. into
 
 of their activities in Germany as the acts of "the allies"
 The natural result of this situation is now upon England in the shape of hydra-headed rumors of new coalitions of Europe, all of them more or less openly directed against ourselves.
 4 We hear most talk of the Latin bloc, France dragging along Bel gium, of course) and Italy ct the head of it, Poland and Czechoslo- vakia and Jugoslavia as it's satel- lites.
 Fleets In Mediterranean.
 Some Frenchmen even know so lit tie about sea-power as to speak in their press of the French and Italian fleets controlling the Medi- terranean, forgetting that this pre- war control" existed on sufferance. because we were compelled to keep our fighting force in the North Sea.
 They may be assured that the ad miralty will henceforth be ready and able to deal anywhere with the com pined navies of Europe.
 Those of England's allies who think in these terms will find Italy 8 weak reed to lean upon, if the ques- ton of enmity to England comes to the fore. Nor are they altogether happy at the thought of Germany and Russia remaining unattached, for these two powers, whatever their present plight, might form the nucleus of. a new entente, with Great Britain. that within decade or two 4at most would command infinitely more strength, in man power, in fi- nance. in industry, than the rest of the continent combined.
 Accordingly. a significant change is found in French opinion and atti- fntx or.dc hc hnn France. as all the world knows, who since tie armistice has stood most firmly against any recognition or economic assistance for Russia, and it was France who professed to see in the. Rapallo treaty menace directed against herself.
 Flirting With Russia.
 ! Now, however, there are flirtations proceeding, "unofficially," of course, in Paris between the French govern ment and a bolsnevist mission. < France for generation before the war looked to St. Petersburg as her safeguard against Berlin, and the most far-seeing of her old school adiplomatists at the time of the peace conference admitted frankly that in seeking to bolster up Poland as an eastern bulwark against Germany. they were erecting what they knew to be a temporary stopgap to last until the day when Russia should re- turn to sanity. again raise huge armies and re-embrace the French alliance.
 There remains Germany. It is not a little astonishing, at first glance to find hints of rapprochment with the hated Huns accompanying the drastic coersion of Germany which France is seeking to accomplish in the Ruhr.
 Neverthless. such suggestions are appearing. The French theory seems to be. that if you kick a German enough. he will become your docile slave, and after that may be used as an instrument to further your poli- cies against other people whom you and your friends may not be strong enough to deal with.
 Frenchmen are notoriously logical, even when their logic tas in this easel, through their ignorance of the psychology of other peoples. rests upon false premises.
 What else can the Germans dor" one can imagine M Poincare asking,