Evening star., 1924-04-20

the maximum guarantee which France
can hope for from Great Britain must
be a promise to go to the aid of the
French If Germany should violate a
neutralizea strip of territory along
the Rhine. But it appears that the
! British in giving this guarantee are
arguing that they should give the
same guarantee to Germany against
! any French aggression. which hardly
satisfies French sensibilities. to saw
| the least.
You must see that there is, after all,
profound divergence between Brit
! tSh and French views of security The
British are aiming Al some sort of
general agreement to preserve peace
IN Europe. because war is materially
ana morally contrary to their concep-
tions. -cy are aiming at the general
paclncatlon Of the continent: while
the FrenchmaH. with four recent in
NaslonS-that is, four within a CEN
tury-In his mind is aiming at some
way of getting aid If there is a fifth
If, as the Frenchman says they come
again France wants promise OF Brit
ish aid if the German invades her
again and she wants some sort OF an
arrangement by which the German
Will not be able again 70 get into
France before the British can send
suff1ctent numbers of troops to offset
German superiority over French num-
bers.
The Englishman, on the other hand,
tarized strip from Holland to Switzer-
land and assert that if either the
French or the Germans send troops
into it. he will be ready to meet the
viola ton by force. But he does not
undertake to maintain any consider
able force, and he has steadily re-
fused to do anything in the way of
agreeing that he will increase his
army to insure that his guarantee
shall be formidable. Moreover he dog
gedly refuses TO make the commit
ment relate only to France lest it
look like an alliance and thus become
the cause of a new war: for Mac
Donald and all his colleagues insist
that Sir Edward Grey's French COM
mitments were in considerable
measure responsible for the last war.
Better Atmosphere Prevails.
To sum up. then, it seems true that
thege is a better atmosphere in Eu-
rope than in the recent past, that this
atmosphere is most striking in the
areas which are inhabited by the
British and the French. Macdonald
has obviously made it possible for
Frenchmen and Englishmen to sit
down and discuss the questions which
concern both, with q degree of good
WILL and confidence, which has been
lacking in all Anglo French coyersa-
tions since the Paris conference.
Added to this, the expert commis-
sion has provided a very good basis
for Anglo-French corporation pro-
vided both are willing to accept the
commentators. and both are ready
to work together to impose them upon
Germany. And it is not out of the
question that mere Anglo French
agreement may act as the final ar
gument in convincing Germany she
must submit.
So far, SO good. But it is also true
that Europe believes that Germany is
in her most dangerous mood since the
close Of the war, that she is about 70
disclose her spirit in her Forthcoming
election, and that her public men
will be so fearful of crossing the pas
sions of their followers and earning
the fate of Erzberger and Rathenau,
after popular feeling has been dis
closed, that there will be n new Ger
man resistance. Many, very many
Europeans believe that Germany will
once more deliberately choose dones-
tic. financial and economic chaos.
rather than submit herself to foreign
inspection or consent to considerable
foreign payments.
1t is undeniabIe that there will be no
real settlement in Europe until Ger
many accepts finally some terms of
payment and proceeds to fulfil them
In reality she cannot be made to pay;
that is the final fact which has been
disclosed in the last five years. OF
course she can be made to pay some
thing, but nothing considerable,
while her resistance brings progress
sive domestic disturbance and uiti-
mately has its effect upon the outside