The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1923 A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 78, 2 April 1923, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1923 A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

j For the cause that lack.<i assistance, I For the wrong that needs resistance, J For the future in the •iistance, j And the good that we can do.

j Two recent announcements about the j grave situation that lia- arisen a* a j result of France"s invauiou of the Kuhr, j deepened the depression produced by a ! survey of event-. On* was the official I French attitude that intervention |,y another I'owe.r would be considered an unfriendly act: the oilier was the Herman ('ovcriiment' f reported -land that evacuation should precede negotiation, tine would have thought thai the association of F.ngland wiuh Franc- on ihe battlefields of Kurope would have been sufficient to give tlni- Briti-h ("ov eriunent the right to intervene in a mailer so perilous to the peace of j Kurope. Such a right i-i recognised in the Covenant of the League. Article II of which declares it to l„. "the friendly right of each member of the League t" ! bring to tho attention of the Assembly lor of the Council any circumstance whatjever affecting intern-at ional relations I whi.-h threatens to di-.-turh international : peace or the good uiulerM an.ling mi [which peace depend-." M. l>oi„cn,c has ; not withdrawn from this standpoint. : bin he now -ays he i« willing to examine the Allies. AI the same lime ihe il'erman liovernmenl announce- that ihe I condition Httribitteil to ii was never ■ made, and that evacuation will not be in-i.-ted upon a- a preliminary tn I negotiation- for a sia'tloniont. The out■ i look to-day i- th.-rviore much l.right.-r ; than it ha- been. Probably a deal of diplomacy ha- be; n brought to bear privately, and in ptirt iudirocl I\. I" hring the parties toj/ether. M. I'oincnre gives to-day an vmphatic I assurance that Frau.ce ha- no intention |of annexing any Herman territory. France is not entiridy free from responsibility for the fact that a quo.l many .people lielieve Ilia/ annexation veiled, perhaps has been the French goal, or ; at- least that France has had another i aim besides the ri-covilry of ref-arat ion-. French opinion si-ems all atony to liave • tried to combine, in the policy 1,, In- car ried out against Cermany. tuo incompatible ideas Unit ~f getting vast re parations and that of making Cernianv so weak that .-ihe would not lie able to ! launch a war of revenge. '.( he Prime : Minister of Britain, who ml ist speak ; with the highest sense of re-|i onsihilitv. j has publicly stated that in li is opinion Frame has something besidj -s reparations in view. This opinion will I*. tested in tlie coming negotiations. If 'iJcrniany makes a fair and •» incere olTer niid France is willing to withdraw her I troops, France will lie able to say that | she has been misjudged. If. however. j France insists upon mainlllining armed forces in the Huhr until ro parations are paid, her motives may 1/t* linble to unpleasant interpretation. ,'M. Poincare is justilied iv (lexliiiing to negotiate with the great Herman -.-apitalists. Stiiines and his associates are sinister figures whose one thought, is their own aggrandisement nnd power, line may ask. however, whether the capitalists of France are entirely with.-m ambitions that may be dangerous to, Kurope, and whether their influence I ►is not already been unfortunate for ';lie interests of peaceful reconstruction. If France ipm now get belter terms from Germany than Britain proposed before the break, it will lie a great score for her. but, that is not likely. Probably the French. Government sees that it has made a mistake, or at least, is disappointei/ with the results ot" the occupation. The military operations have cost millions of marks without producing reparations of any great value, and the d.ifliijulties ot" negotiation will probably be added to -by a French demand that! Oernuiliy shall pay this additional bill. The sooner this question of reparations) again becomes the concern of the Alii* s as a whole the better. When in 191fi Rumania, taking matters into her own hand, entered Hungary to extract rwparation payments, the Allied Peace Conference sent her an ultimatum, t igned by M. Clemenceau. which reads curiously to-day. Rumania was informed that such action ignored "the accepted principles of reparation."' The collection of reparations, said the shocked Con- , ference, could not be allowed "to degenerate into individual and competitive ' aeUon."' If the French Government remembered this when it decided on the r Ruhr adventure, no doubt Ministers . reflected that circumstances alter oases.