Evening Post. THURSDAY, DECEMBER. 2, 1926. A REASSURING STATEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1926, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, DECEMBER. 2, 1926. A REASSURING STATEMENT

M. Briaacl's statement on foreign policy which is reported in a message from Paris to-day is calm, comprehensive, and reassuring. Even of Syria he had a hopeful and confident word to say.

Syria and Tunis wore settling down, he said. France's treatment of tkeso territories had been approved by the Mandates Commission.

What Tunis is doing in this context we are unable to say. In North Africa Morocco has given France an abundance of trouble, and she has been much exercised over Tangier, but in neither of these cases have her difficulties been aggravated by the jurisdiction of the League of Nations.' And, though the Mandates Commission has been criticised as too inquisitorial, how could it possibly feel called upon to express any opinion on the administration of a province which has been a French protectorate for more than forty years? .In Syria the gross blundering of the French must have given the Mandates Commission anxiety enough without its seeking trouble elsewhere, but if it has really found something to approve, and Syria is-really "settling down," the matter is one on which not France alone but-the-whole world is to be congratulated. An administration which has made the Syrians regret that Allenby ever delivered them from the Turks has hitherto been a reproach to the League of Nations and a dangerous contributor to the friction between East and West. But the chief interest of M. Briand's statement lies in its refer- , ences to dangers nearer home. Great strides have-been made within the last two years towards the settlement of the age-long rivalry between France and Germany which had culminated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the preparations of the parties and their Allies extending over more than forty years for a renewal of the struggle, and then the four years of war in which nearly the whole world was engaged. The Treaty of Versailles, though it was called a Peace.Treaty, did not really make peace. :ft was speedily recognised that it would be little better than an armistice unless it was supplemented by a more constructive and conciliatory Jfolicy. At Locarno, at Geneva, andP at Thoiry successive instalments of the policy have been carried out in a manner which has revived the hopes of Europe. The admission of Germany to the League of Nations and to a seat on its Council has removed whatever point there was in the taunt that the League was an organisation designed by the victors in the World War for the purpose of keeping the vanquished down. After Germany had thus been restored to the comity of nations at Geneva, the Briand-Strese-mann interview at Thoiry was supposed to have taken her to the heart of France. So complete did the reconciliation appear that it inspired some wiseacres with fear rather than hope, and actually induced them to suggest that the proper answer to a friendship which all Europe had regarded as an.essential condition of a lasting peace was to restore one of the features of the old regime which was a potent cause of war. As peace had at last broken out between France and Germany, an alliance be-, tween Britain and Italy was to ensure that Europe should be ranged once more into two hostile camps busily engaged in preparations for the next war. So far as Italy is concerned, there was certainly some ground for supposing that she would welcome this monstrous proposal. This, according to the leader whose word she accepts as law in both domestic and foreign policy, is her "Napoleonic year." He has distinguished it by talking of. the Imperial Italy which must claim "a place in the sun" and recover the glories of the Caesars by rattling his sabre as vigorously as the ex-Kaiser ever did, by politely informing Germany that "Fascist Italy could, if necessary, carry the Italian Tricolour beyond the frontier," and by telling France with equal politeness that unless the friendship of Italy was to be "fatally compromised" "a certain criminal and unheard-of toleration practised across the frontier must immediately cease." Seldom indeed has a responsible statesman indulged in such language as this towards a foreign nation except as a prelude to war, and the frontier incidents by 'which the threat to France has been followed arc the very kind of thing from which wars have been precipitated before either party was ready. Indeed, according to the information cabled on Tuesday, both parties are openly engaged in warlike preparations. Italy, says the "Daily News," has mounted 150 guns between San Eemo

and Ventimiglia, and has reconstructed tho mountain roads to enablo the passage of guns. She has also erected blockhouses. Similar precautions have boon taken on the French side, where forts have been rearmed and rcoccupied. An infantry regiment has moved from Marseilles and is now stationed at S;iint Martin-Vcsuble, close to the frontier.

Though this extraordinary report lacks confirmation, the peaceful character of our latest word from Rome cannot reasonably be held to do much to discredit it. While the news agency which is said to enjoy Signor Mussolini's confidence does not confirm the rumour that he will shortly confer with the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France, and Germany in order to extend the scope of the Thoiry conversations, it is nevertheless able to say that "such a con-' ference would be entirely consistent with Italy's policy for consolidating European peace." As contempt for the League of Nations and threats to France and Germany have not been deemed inconsistent with "Italy's policy for consolidating European] peace," it is impossible to attach much' weight to this statement. M. Briand's quiet but firm and candid reference to the Franco-Italian friction is far better calculated to inspire confidence. There had, he said, been ill-humour-ed incidents in Italy. It was a pity that such ill-humour was always direct-, ed against France. Fortunately the incidents had not led to serious results, and. there was a limit to . things. The Consulates and Legations should be respected. Eelations now were satisfactory, and Frenchmen should not pay overmuch attention to the wild claims to French territory appearing in Italian newspapers. Towards Germany also M. Briand displays the same combination of friendliness and candour. "Peace," as he happily said, "is a person difficult to please, demanding more than politeness." At Thoiry it is evident that-Dr. Stresemann's politeness was charming, but the clumsy self-righteousness with which he has since represented Germany as an injured innocent to recover, as of right, all that she had before the war has embarrassed the good work to which he gave such a promising start.