The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-04
By SIR CHARLES ROSS. BART. (By Leassd Wire ts The Ass. .Heraid)
 tcsnsrlahf ia1Al


 avoid disaster.
 sy SIR CHARLES ROSS. EARL;
 tcspyrIsht. 1920
 LONDON, Feb. 2.-The most stupid, ignorant. violent or obstinate of men often see light with surprising sudden ness when affliction sufficiently dire falls upon them.
 We have denounced French policy in Europe for years. with all the force and conviction of which we were capa- ble, and have not hesitated to point out that the franc has been, and is, the Achilles heel of what threatens to be the most dangerous military despotism that has succeeded in enslaving Europe since Napoleon.
 The franc smashed in January, sinking to less than One-quarter its par value, almost touching 100 even in terms of the depreciated pound. We have cOntended for years. in full knowl- edge that the depreciation of French currency would be bad for our own trade, and that ecnOmic chaos in France would merely help to set back the recovery of the continent. that this was cOnsummatiOn devOutly to be wished. The remedy si bad. and not for France alone, but it is not 50 bad as the disease.
 It is not too much to say that the depreciation by 6 per cent in the six hours of one ma arket day, or the whole capital value of French currency and fixed interest bearing securities, did more to restore sanity in Paris than all the 1rrefutable logic poured against IsxsA nomists throughout the world during the past five years. Many skull i'm perviOus to ideas communicates gently can be suitably impressed by a blow from sufficiently sturdy cudgel.
 Disilluslon For France
 This is hard time for France, this moment of disillusi0n. when she learns that her critics, not really her enemies as she has believed. but her best friends because candid friends, were right These attempts to fake budgets to turn the restoration of the devastate areas into carnival of loot paid for by loans flOated at extOrtiOnate interest and set down as recoverable expendi- ture,' to be wrung out of Germany i; these terribly expensive and ruinous wreckings and tramplings in other peO- ple's territOries-all these mistakes and crimes, as Monday taught France to begin to understand, damage not only everyone else in q world that must live with France, but France herself. Drastic economies, immediate higher taxation, a balanced budget, face set stern against imitation, and, above all, abandonment of the pretense that Germany is to pay great sums in cash these are the bOons that in his wis dom bred of panic, he has prmoised. If his chamber supports him, and if he draws the logical further conclusions from present premises. the franc will be saved. And if the economic fate of France depends upon the franc, no less does the economic fate of Europe and of our own country, as we have preached in tlsAse columns to the wear mess of ourselves and our readers, de pend upon the behavior of France.
 False Economic Steps | But NJ. POincare's economic steps cannot in themselves save the franc, France, Europe, or the world. The false economy which, as every French man now sees, has brought to the verge of ruin the whole investing class of the republic, has been deduced from, and is inseparably entwined with, the fallaciOus political doctrines expressed in present French foreign policy. The franc cannot recover if France con tinues to subsidize small nations throughout Europe, to their own de- triment and hers, for the prepara tion of future wars. And yet we have suf- fered.
 haf hA fae nhn NN fI,a franc that we hope has opened Frence with poor Czecho- -Slovakia directed against Germany. and an Italian Serbian treaty inspired by Paris with view to ensuring the neutrality of Italy next time France, as she is convinced she can do, chooses to drag Serbia into hostilities. The franc can not recover if France wastes her re- sources, and piles up an appalling her itage of hate against herself, by con- tinuing to strangle the Ruhr and pay sassins and thieves to run amuck throughout the most peaceful and law abiding lands of Germany.
 Ruler Occupation Expensive
 Productive pledges" NJ. Poincare calls his seizures on the Rhine: He has now been in the Ruhr more than year, the Chamber is compelled to vote hundreds or millions to pay the cost of the occupation, and it was an nounced in the House of Commons on the authority of the board of trade, that German deliveries in kind are now no more than before that day, terrible alike for Germany and for France, January II, 1923, in reality, these de- 1ira for thon fbnco x,I, oh Germany was then making.
 But, above all, the French in their present chastened mood may now learn,