THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 5

THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE.

RESTORATION AND REPARATION FOR ATROCITIES.

LEAGUE or PEACE TO CONTROL NATIONS OF PREY

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

I'ARIS, June 7. In the Senate, M. Regismauset introduced an interpellation inviting M, Ribot to dehne the general policy of France, lie said mat the Senate was unanimously indignant when seven Frenchmen proposed to go to Stockholm to confer witn the Germans. It wished to share the Government's responsibilities, being unable to admit that Frenchmen should show the least sign oi haltiug when the country was still invaded. M. Ribot replied that Uernian Socialists from the first had been conscious accomplices of crimes against humanity, and even now approved the atrocities by their culpable silence. It was morally impossible for Frenchmen in the nliddle of tlie war to confer with audi enemies. Such confabulations in foreign towns only created an illusion of peace that was dangerous. ".Never at any moment," continued M. Ribot, "especially when the struggle is hardest because tile end is approaching, can we leave such an illusion in the publ.c mind. The Army oi France requires all the country's strength, especially the moral strength, as befits free men. We do not seek captious equivocal formulas. We rejected the trap laid iv the seductive lormula which did not originate in letrograd, but was imported from elsewhere, and the birthplace of wh.ch was only too obvious. "Ihe words No annexations' cannot mean that we have no right to demand what belongs to us. namely, Alsace-Lorraine, which has never ceased to be French at heart since the abominable act which violated justice and right i IV 1871. But what is meant by 'No indemnities'! X it be a question of humbling the conquered we will have nothing lo do with it, but no French Government could renounce reparation for damage and atrocities. After the unprecedented devastation of our territory it is not an arbitrary act, hut an act of justice which is our aim. We an- convinced that we will find these ideas reflected in President Wilson's Note to Pctrograd. We arc thus in complete agreement with tho conscience of the civilised world." M. Kibot added: "We must demand guarantees to safeguard our children from the return of such horrors. Shall we find them in territorial acquisitions or temporary occupations of territory, or neutralisation of territory'; All these questions will be considered when the time comes. Our best guarantee will be the reformation of Europe, in winch all nations shall belong to themselves, where no single man can let loose such evils. If necessary the Hermans should consent, for I believe in the power of ideas of justice. All those who fought together to the end will find that they need not separate after victory, they must form n League of Peace in the true democratic spirit which France had the honour of introducing to the world. We nations in arms must form a Society of Nations in which the future of humanity will lie. All nations which are not nations of prey must unite to prevent others disturbing the peace!"— (Reuter.)