FAR-REACHING AND SINISTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 11

FAR-REACHING AND SINISTER.

EFFECT OF RUHR OCCUPATION. WHAT NEXT? (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February 6. YVe still mark time, re the Ruhr. Alone in the Press, Lord Rothermere follows the methods of his late brother in supporting French action, but with j every day the unusual unanimity of the . rest" of the Knglish Press shows more] and more uneasiness as to where France j is to land Huron", indeed the world, in ( playing its lone hand. Conservative and Liberal weekly or-j ganisatious talk in practically identical j terms of what the "Spectator" terms: "the marsblight of the Ruhr." | This sober Liberal weekly asks that, the League of Nations should step in,! suggests (hat we should offer to France | n cancellation of debts for if that! country continues to ruin our trade we j shall be unable to receive our debts—' and suggests further that we should I offer France a solemn guarantee of help j if Oermany were to make an unprovoked attack on France. English correspondents in France are I reporting that the French people are : more widely realising all the implica- ! tions of their policy a new burden of; taxation to the French people and no. money or goods from (iermany. It is 1 asserted that the French Government' is realising its foreign investments in i order to carry on, so heavy i.s the finan- j eial burden of the occupation proving. I There is indeed a growing feeling that Mr. Lloyd (ieorge was not using mere I rhetoric ill his recent statement "when ■ the French troops marched on Essen . lliey began n movement the most far- \ reaching and probably the most sinister | in it* consequences that lias been wit-; nessed for many centuries in Europe." It is being openly and in some places , trenchantly asked are we right in re- I maining passive spectators only. There are even those who assert that we should boldly state that France is "the enemy now in her unblushing bid for the hegemony of Europe, and we are . bidden speak out to France as boldly as we did when (iermany tried on its side 1o effect the conquest of its neighbours. ' These advocates assert thnt by such bold and decisive action alone can France be made to realise in time what she is do-, ing and to understand that the Rot.hermerc megaphone of the Paris "Daily Mail" is not the voice of sane England. They assert that it i- time sentimental feeling for France's "devastation" should give way to plain speaking. France, they say. suffered terribly indeed during the war: but to-day there is less human suffering in France than in any other belligerent country in Europe. The devastated areas afford a melancholy picture to the casual observer, but there is no suffering there at all. The great majority of the inhabitants of those areas are better provided with the . necessaries and comforts of existence ! than ever before in their lives, partly j owing to nil the money that was spent' there during the war and found its way) into thrifty stockings—twopence for a I glass of water!- and partly owing to j the extravagant "compensation" which j Jias since been paid by the French Government. Tn n single city in Lancashire i you may easily find more real suffering to-day than in the whole of France— and the sufferings in Lancashire are i largely due to French policy. Tt is an! invidious topic which we should much] prefer not to discuss; but if the alleged "suffering.*" of the French people are! to be adduced as an excuse for the policy I of general sabotage which the French' Government is now pursuing, it is necessary to point out that these "sufferings" have, iri fact. n» existence. In the! devastated area—which is not very big : -there is many a forlorn field, but 'there i.s no peasant who cannot afford his petit verre as well as his loaf of bread, and scarcely a property ownef who has not already received by way of compensation several times as many francs as ihe could have sold the whole of his possessions for in 1013 The American Ambassador here declares that France will bring disaster' on herself by acting alone in such a\ desperate adventure as further occupa- ' tion of Herman territory. She finds it! a different thing altogether from what! she experienced when acting in concert with the Allies. Last night, (he editor of the "P.anker's Magazine.'' in an address, stated: "Although (lermany has an adverse exchange, which would take years of industry to adjust without any further handicap, she lias to face an" external debt in the shape of reparations amounting to about .Cfi.snn.noo.ofin. This debt can only be paid by her exporting goods and services, so that her measure of success in paying the amount-the greater part of which goes to Franc.:— is to a certain extent the measure of 1 her success in cutting out ourselves and ; other competitors in the world's trade. ■I do not mention this point of the great part of the reparation payments going .to France in any spirit of ill will to : that country, but T believe in facing facts, and it i.s a fact that in this matter of reparation payments our own interests and those of France are by no means identical by reason of the extent to which we are dependent upon our ■. manufacturing industries."