The Press Saturday, December 3, 1921. France and Britain.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17319, 3 December 1921, Page 8

The Press Saturday, December 3, 1921. France and Britain.

To the world there can have been no -more impressive proof of the generous and pacific spirit of Britain than her handling of her intractable ally across the Channel during the past three years. When Germany struck, Britain bared her arm and fought and kept on fighting until the enemy was defeated. She was the first Power to recover her ancient calm, and she has fought as strenuously for peace and reasonableness, as she fought for. four years to smash German militarism. She has been faced with the task of maintaining old friendships while checking the fierce and reckless spirit of some of those friends. Again and again the French Government has been on the verge of wrecking the peace, and on these more serious occasions Mr Lloyd George, speaking for a united Britain, did not hesitate to use the language of command, and yet so used it that he averted .any rupture of the alliance. 'lt might have been hoped that Britain's example would have disposed France to co-operate in building a real peace. But neither Britain's example nor the great fact of Britain's friendship has availed much to lead France to seek peace' and.ensue it. Another crisis ha3| now arisen, very similar to those earlier crises which ''The Press" was blamed : for predicting,~and calling as impera;i<*ively as those criseedid for a. wbole-

hearted adoption of the British point of view. The origin of this crisis was the speech delivered in London by Lord Curzon, just after M. Briand's speech in Washington. The speech strikes'us as an admirable one. Lord Curzon urged that it was useless to reduce naval armaments if the nations still contemplated accumulating vast land armaments, and he warned France that if she adopted an isolated, individual policy of her own she would not in the long run injure Germany, and would fail to protect herself. Her real protection lay not in her military valour or her national spirit, but in the determination of the Great Powers that no disturber of the peace should buckle on a sword in Europe. Lord Curzon referred in quite cordial terms to France, but he suggested that if Britain, whose, existence depended upon her command of the sea, was willing to reduce her Navy, others ought not to be allowed to adopt policies rendering Britain's sacrifice nugatory. The sequel to this speech could have been foreseen. There has been in France an explosion of anger not only against Lord Curzon, but against the British Government. One paper complains that France cannot have a personal policy anywhere in the world where Great Britain is interested. Another suggests that Lord Curzou's speech is merely a smoke-screen behind which the British Dreadnoughts are retiring to their bases. So far is French opinion, as expressed in the newspapers, from understanding the British point of view, thnt there are suggestions that Britain does not approve of the attitude of Lord Curzon and Mr Lloyd George. Yet nothing was made more clear during the earlier crises than that British opinion is most firmly behind the Government in all its endeavours to persuade the French Government to adopt a more reasonable attitude. The people of Britain, and, indeed, of the Empire, greatly desire that the close friendship between them and the French shall continue, but they are conscious that if France's policy causes a rupture of the alliance the fault will be France's own. Franco suffered dreadfully during the war, and her feeling concerning Germany is perfectly natural, but if France were free to translate that feeling fully into action she would ruin herself and wreck all hopes of ultimate peace in Europe.