FRENCH CONSUL'S LETTER.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20470, 13 February 1932, Page 7

FRENCH CONSUL'S LETTER.

* ATTACK ON BRITAIN. STIR IN MELBOURNE. i FROM Orit OWN OOU*t£SPOi*DEHT.) yri 1 VBY, February 4. a stir has been caused by the publication in Melbourne of ail extraordinary letter written by the Consul for .France in that city (M. Forcioli.) in reply to an anonymous correspondent who signed himself "Aussie.' The Consul was responsible for an extraordinary attack on Liritish conduct in aud since the war, aud the challenge has been tills en up in Sydney and many other cities in the Commonwealth. Returned soldiers and business men have been eager to defend the good name of their Empire, aud have strongly denied that there was any justification for the French Consul's attack. Here is tho letter which has caused the storm: "Ungland did not cuter the war to Btwu .France . from extinction, but to savo herself from tlio armies, tlie ilects, the industry, aud business methods o£ the German people, who, on tlio day ihey br-camc masters of Belgium and

the J\ T ortli of France, would have invaded England. The French soldiers, who fought almost alone at the first battle of the Marne, at Verdun, and on innumerable parts of the front during four years, earning but five sous :t day (a little less than 3d, and not os) —who had neither the succulent jams, the jellies, the cigarettes, tho safety razors, the tubs, the leaves of absence, the theatres, the ambulances, the nurses, nor many other things which other allies had, and whose number of killed and wounded amounted to 15,000,000 —never mutinied. "On March 18th, 1918, when the Oth British Army, commanded by General Gough. was broken up by the Ludendorft" offensive, it abandoned its hold on the front and broke the liaison between the British and French Armies, leaving a wide deienseless gap through which the German Army would have pushed on its successful attack and broken through. It was French soldiers who were rtished from all parts i.n lorries, motor-cars, on horseback, by trains, by avions, and on foot, who filled the" gap and heroically gave their lives to stop the German advance. "It is a falsehood to say that the British Government remitted to France two-thirds of her debt to her—u debt which, it is too often forgotten, was contracted by France to save the Allies, and which consisted aot in cash, but in. coal aud petrol, in wool and cotton, iu iron and steel, in ships ">rhieh Franco bought in England at prieos ten times more than their pre-war yaJut,

and at a rate of interest as high as U per cent. When the English pound was falling Franee, who had 142 millions worth of it, did all she could to save the situation, and help the British during their crisis. Not only did France not sell her stock of English £'s. which she had bought at the rate of 125 franc? to the £, but she lent England £65.000,000. This help has cost France the enormous sum of two milliards five hundred million .francs. This is another thing England seems to hare forgotten."