Evening star., 1932-05-15
FRENCH POLICY TO REMAIN
FIRM DESPITE LEFT GAINS
Program of Tardieu in Security and
Reparations Is Not That of Either
Wing, But of All Frenchmen.

| Secretary of State to accomplish any
thing but self-education as a conse-
quence Of his European excursion.
French policy vis-a-vis Germany and
in the matter of disarmament and
reparations viii remain constant and
unchanging. whoever happens to be
prime minister during the next few
months. Moreover, 1t Is far from un-
likely that either Immediately or after
some brief and transitory experiment a
| government Of national concentration
will take Office to protect those French
interests and rights which the mass Of
the French people are beginning to feel
are menaced alike by Hitlerism in Ger
many and pro-German sentiments in
Britain and the United States.
Such cabinet, perhaps excluding
| the extreme Nationalists and the So
cialists. would have for its purpose to
defend French treaty rights. to main-
tain at Geneva and elsewhere the
French thesis that security precedes
diSarmament-a thesis supported by
Poland and the Little Entente-and to
oppose all attempts to restore Germany
economically and financially through
French participation and without re-
| gard 70 French rights. This means, in
substance, renewal of the French in
sistence which broke up the London
and Paris conferences last Summer that
Germany should agree to refrain from
agitation against the treaty Of Yer
sailles during the time she was using
French loans to bring about her own
recovery.
The French do not believe the Hitler
experiment can end In anything but
disaster, II Hitler does not obtain sub
stantial aid from abroad. And they are
resolved that no such aid shall come
with their cooperation. The whole
Hitler program is, in their eyes, designed
to destroy peace and order in Europe,
and abolish the security and unity Of
France and her allies. They are not
frightened In the ordinary sense Of the
word because they are satisfied that
any aggression attempted by Germany
now would end in defeat, given the
military strength Of France and her
allies and the financial and economic
weakness Of the Reich.
What the French do believe well-nigh
unanimously Is that no real progress
can be made toward European recovery
until Germany has had her attack Of
Hitlerism and has recovered. They re-
gard Germany as at the moment mad.
Therefore, all attempts to deal ration
ally with the Reich are futile and even
dangerous. And while France is suf-
fering severely from the worldwide de-
preston, this suffering Is infinitely less
general or acute than that of Germany.
or, for that matter, Of Britain and the
United States.
Hold Repayment Essential.
Great Britain and the United States
obviously believe that the recovery of
their private loans to Germany is an
essential detail in their own recovery,
although in Britain the belief in future
payments Of private debts Is less strong
than here. They are therefore acutely
interested in German economic and
financial progress, and turn q blind
eye to all the political implications Of
the Hitler developments. France, on
the other hand, Is not concerned In
private loans TO Germany to any
appreciable extent. and her interest is
in reparations and political develop
ments.
France Is not going to consent to
any scrapping Of reparations in so far
as her claims for the reconstruction of
the devastated area are concerned, even
If her British and American creditors
cancel the debts. And since her present
debt payments do not exceed her un-
conditional reparations claims, her
position is explicable. She is not going
to share in any program for financial
relief Of Germany while Germany clings
to the Hitler program Of territorial re-
vision. She Is not going to agree to any
measure of disarmament of say real
consequence while no compensating
steps are taken to guard her security.
This threefold purpose is above all
questions OF parties or groups and is
championed by all the more consid-
cradle figures in French public life
apart from the Socialists The Geneva
Conference has already wrecked against
the solid barrier Of French purpose Just
as the London and Washington Naval
Conferences did. The same French
opposition which brought to nothing
the moral effect of the Hoover mora
torium and the practical endeavors OF
America and Britain at London and
Paris last Summer will endure, who-
ever happens to sit In the Quai d'Orsay
and watch the waters of the Seine 90
by.
If M. Herriot or M Painleve goes to
Lausanne instead of M. Tardieu. he
will have to repeat the warnings of
Herriot at London when the Young Plan
was in the making, that his STAY In
office Is conditional on his defense of
French claims. Americans may like or
dislike French policy. They may see
in 1t wise concern for national interests
or selfish disregard of world interests.
They may Judge the French course at
Geneva as prudent regard for national
security or fresh evidence Of militarism.
What counts Is the necessity to recog-
nige that 1t is French policy
Moreover, for what 1t is worth, I add
my personal impression after many
weeks spent In Paris and in the French
province. Nowhere is there discoverable
any real opposition to the foreign policy
which has been dictated by Tardieu and
Laval. On the contrary, everywhere
there is rising resentment against
what Is regarded as a British and
American disregard for French rights
and deliberate and selfish misinter-
probation Of the German phenomenon.
Lent Billions to Reich.
The French peasant reasons that the
Germans are what he always believed
them to be. But the British and
Americans, they say, refusing to accept
this view, lent billions to the Reich.
Now Germany has wtllfully gone bank
rupt ana the investors stand to lose
their money. In that situation they
are trying to recover at the expense
of France, through the scrapping Of
reparations, without, on the American
side, even willingness to cancel the
French debt. And the French peasant.
who is the master Of France, who Will
have to pay If the Germans do not, "a
unimpressed.
Neither is he impressed at the other
program Of the Anglo-saxon nations
requiring him to reduce his defenees.
while they refuse to increase their re-
sponsibilities for peace. His newspaper
tells him what Hitler proposes. II
sounds to him like old familiar accounts
OF the prelude to the last war. II the
British and Americans desire dissrnl-
ament it is for them to provide security.
And their desire for disarmament seems
! in his ewes limited In French aFpa.s