MARS AND MAMMON

Evening Star, Issue 18393, 29 September 1923, Page 7

MARS AND MAMMON

GERMANY'S POSITION.

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW.

LLOYD GEORGE’S VIEWS.

WORDS OF WARNING.

[The following and nil of Mr Lloyd George’s articles ar* copyright by the United Press Association in America (all countries), copvright in Australia and New Zealand by the Australian Press Association, copyright in Great Britain by tho ‘ Daily Chronicle.’ Reproduction in full or part is prohibited.]

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, September 27. (Received September 29, at 8.5 a.m.)

Mr Lloyd George writes:— Corfu shows some improvement, and Fiume is no worse. A patient is desperately ill, but it is something that the threatened complication is not developing. If tho Council of Ambassadors can ultimately lure Italy out of Corfu they will have succeeded in preventing a squalid blow from festering into a dangerous sore. Fiumo is back to the_ negotiation stage, and the temperature is distinctly lower there. In France and Germany the of siiow strangulation is proceeding to its impending end. It is a great feat of national endurance that Germany held out so long. When the end conies it wRI bo by agreement, or by chaos. Since a prospect of arrangement seems remote, the _ outlook for confusion is distinctly promising. Dr Slresomann will find it difficult to carry Germany with him on any terms of capitulation which will satisfy M. Poincare. It is M. Poincare’s repeated insistence upon Franco’s intention to remain in possession of the most important industrial area of Germany for a whole generation which has prolonged tho resistance. If when passive resistance gives way the French Government proposes magnanimous terms, reconciliation and reparations mav still march hand in hand, but M. Pomcare must conciliate the two parties. The first is Imperialist France, which only cares for dominion. Tho other section is peasant and bourgeois Franco, which wants money for uso in repairing the devastated areas.

It is difficult to serve Mars and Mammon, but it has been done. There is a cloud of witness among the wmr profiteers in all lands who will testify to the possibility. There may be glorv and power in annexing the Ruhr and Rhineland to France, but there will be no cash in it for the French peasant, who prefers ready cash to the rumble of a distant drum. In the coming March elections M. Poincare will want the support of the shrewd peasants and rentiers, but M. Poincare must also tliink of the forge masters and the financiers, who look with greedy eyes at the infinite possibilities of the Ruhr coal and the Ruhr furnaces and factories. M. Poincare must satisfy the peasant by showing German gold flowing into the French coffers, and be must satisfy the iron and steel musters by giving them the prospect of controlling the rich industries of the Ruhr. There is no room for magnanimity in such a predicament. Reports that come to me from travellers in Germany tell of growing chaos. Robberies for clothes and food are common, and hungry prowlers infest the night in many German cities. The bewilderment of the mark is paralysing business. No ono knows what to order or what price to quote. The most agile brain finds it difficult to do business when millions jump about like grasshoppers on a summer’s dav.

Life in Berlin is like an ill-provided lunatic asylum. That nothing worse lias so far happened is a triumph for German discipline and self-restraint •, but things are getting worse. The respect for authority is weaker, and winter is coming. Something may be done to improve the situation before the winter if terms can bo arranged which will not throw Germany into a revolutionary tumult. In Franco the Baldwin-Poincaro communique is hailed as a complete victory for M. Poincare. In England the Government’s tamo trumpeter proclaims Mr Baldwin’s triumph. I think that M. Poincare persuaded Mr Baldwin that it is now too late for the British Government to take any separate action, as tho French Government is in posession, and there is irrefutable proof that Germany is on the point of capitulation. At tho best this means that before Christmas comes Franco, Belgium, and Italy will be receiving monthly deliveries of German coal which were interrupted by the Ruhr invasion. As for reparations in cash instalments, Germany is less able to pay than she w r as a year ago, so France will remain in tho Ruhr, as she will not receive reparations. The future will depend upon German leadership. There may be internal disintegration and localised anarchy, during which Germany will bo helpless and broken; but the Germans aro not Russians. They are a highly-educated and thoroughly trained people, with a deep sense of what is duo to the State. They will pull themselves together ultimately, and when they do Francs and Belgium will he cleared out of tho Ruhr without any reparations.

The Russian alliance saved Franco from humiliation after 1670, and Russia is still alive. When she recovers from her wounds and fever, Russia will have much to say about tho frontiers imposed upon her weakness. Franco can prevent Germany from rearming, but she cannot prevent the Germans from rearming Russia. M. Poin care’s triumph may cost Franco more than tho brutalities of Bismarck cost Germany.