Evening star., 1924-07-27
FRANCES STAND BLOCKS
HIGH HROAD TO PROGRESS
Must Capitulate in London Conference
Or Face Extremely Costly Ma
tiOnal Isolation.

| settled once and for all time. But
unless outside pressure is brought to
bear and French politicians are
brought into alignment with inter-
national veal, nothing may be ex-
pected. French politicians will be
forced to repudiate many of their
| theses if there is to be advance. Other
ways of settlement have been tried
| and failed. All have been broken
| upon the rock of French political
stubbornness, and the London con-
ference will go the same way unless
| agreements are reached during the
present week.
Poincnre Ideas Menace.
The ever-readiness Of Poincare and
his regime to garrote any understand
ings with other nations which infringe
on the force -without-stint school and
the constant willingness to place the
French government and peoples in
position of staying the hand of prog
ress to gain individual ends. is the
real menace to the allied conference
in London. Ostensibly Herriot is the
man to whom the world would look
to pull France onto the highroad of
general international progress. But
even Herriot is very susceptible at the
moment to the organized resistance
of the Poincare clique in Paris. He
knows that any good he may achieve
by persistence in tenure of Office Is
hazarded by any one move in London
which may be interpreted as an aban-
donment by France of those ideas
which Poincare has SO long preached
as wholly necessary to the perpetua~
ton of national interest. Poinca 70
consequently will be the man to de-
eide whether or not France will walk
with the allies. The situation is one
of the most peculiar that has arisen
in international negotiation in dec
AIDES, and it is one of the most dan
gerous for France, for with con-
tinued clinging to Poincare policieS
and fiouting of assured economn
continental advance on the oths
hand, the position of France will b<
anything but enviable.
How France Can Profit.
Though France may have to con.
cede her grip upon the Ruhr, lose the
deciding voice in the infliction Of fur
| ther sanctions on Germany and stand
aside and witness a rejuvenated Ger
| many, thing which secretly she has
never desired, France stands in tho
way of gaining much through Coz
| cessions to the viewpoint of the otheS
allies Her financial position is to.
| day largely dependent upon the mod"
justment of debts.
The very financiers who are now
abused by France for insisting that
France yield out a few months back
saved the franc from a tremendous
crash. They were hailed gleefully
then. The very nations that saved
France during the period of the war
are but eagerly seeking to further CO.
operate with her sans the peculiarly
| noxious nationalistic nostrums of
| Poincare. But If France decides to
block the conference, delay the inau
guration of economic settlements and
| cling to her peculiar ideas of perpet-
| uating self rather than working for
| common good, unquestionably Europe
| will see new alignments, an Anglo
German alliance being not the least
of possible arrangements which
eventually would subordinate French
| interest to that of the continent.
France cannot afford at this time
to be isolated morally, financially and
economically.
That is why some capitulation
| leading to inauguration of new
scheme of things from a reparations
| standpoint may be expected sooner or
later.
Common sense alone dictates some
such action