THE RUHR DANGER

Northern Advocate, 10 March 1923, Page 5

THE RUHR DANGER

"SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS.!'

AND CONFUSED METAPHORS. MR LLOYD GEORGE'S LATEST. (Copyright.) (Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, March 8. Mr Lloyd George's twelfth article is entitled "The Danger in the Ruhr." , "When you have walked some dis- ; tance into quicksand and are sinking* deeper with every step, it is always difficult to decide whether you are more likely to reach firm, ground by pressing forward or by going backward. You must do one or the other. You cannot just stand fast, for that is inevitable destruction. The French Government is clearly of opinion that safety lies in marching further into the quagmire, so more German cities are being occupied, more burgomasters and officials expelled, more men and boys shot in the streets, more black troops imported, more regulations and decrees issued. There is more depression in the French, Belgian and Italian exchanges, more confusion in Central Europe's 'bossiness'; in a sentence, there is more quaking and less solid coal. But for her fatuous invasion France would in the past six or seven weeks have received from the Ruhr nearly three million tons of coal and coke instead of the 50,000 tons actually received. "No wonder M. Louclieur stated flatly in the French Chamber that he did not approve of the Ruhr enterprise. He has one distinct advantage over the Ruhr plungers: he knows something about business. He is also aij admirable judge of to-morrow's weather —a rare endowment among politicians. Any simpleton can tell you the way the wind is blowing today, but it requires a man of special insight to forecast its direction tomorrow*. M. Louclieur is one of these well-equipped weather prophets, so he has satisfied the opinion of to-day by supporting M. Poincare and safeguards his position against' to-morrow's change by stating that he does not approve of the policy he supports.

"Will the French Government try to extricate themselves from the difficulties into which they have precipitated their country and Europe? I fear not. Heedlessness lures . man into

danger; it needs courage to get out, when getting out involves the admission of blame. There are few who possess that exalted type of courage.

"There are further reasons why the present Government o,f France will flounder further into the quicksand. The trouble to-day in France is that every alternative leader disapproves of this enterprise and believes it must ultimately fail. On the' other hand, no prominent figure in French politics is prepared to take the odium of sounding the retreat. It would always be said that success was in sight and but for the new Minister's cowardice and perfidy France would harg emerged triumphantly out of her financial worries. No French statesman dare face that deadly accusation, so the preson*: French Government *is tied t) the saddle of its charger and is forced to go on.

"Another expalwition of thj dilVculty of withdriAV.'rg lies in ';he increasing fury of the original funenters of this rashness. Last week I gave a summary of ambitious plans for syndicating European resources. This week they propound a new treaty, which will supersede the , Versailles Treaty. Boundaries are to be revised, rich provinces and towns practically annexed, Ruhr coal is to be harnessed to Lorraine ore, and Germany reduced to complete economic subjection. There has been nothing comparable with these ideas since the Norman Conquest.

"Needless to say Britain and America are not k to be invited to this new peace conference. They will be graciously informed of the conditions of the new peace when it is finally established by French arms. The British Empire, which raised millions of men to liberate French soil from the German invaders, awl lost hundreds of thousands of its best young lives in the effort, is not even to be consulted as to a settlement which its losses alone made possible. America, who came to the rescuc with millions of its bravest, is barely worth a sentence in these ravings of brains intoxicated with an unwholesome mixture of hatred, greed and military arrogance.

"The French Government are not committed by an overt declaration to these schemes, but it is ominous that

they issue whose insistent prbdding lias driven this Government 011 to its present action. Up to the present 110 repudiation has come from the head of the Government. Pledges for reparation and security will cover a multitude of aggressions. "I have perused the Blue Book on the Paris Conference, being anxious to find out exactly what M. Poincare proposed to Germany as a condition of submission to French will. I have read his speeches in vain. It is true he was never asked a question. That sound incomprehensible. Everyone was engaged and in such a hurry to break up the conference and put an end to the disagreeable disagreement? that it seems never to have occurred to them to ask this essential question, and the party principally concerned ■was not No one k:iow3

the terms on which the French army is prepared to evacuate the Ruhr. Mr Bonar Law could not explain them to the House of Commons, for no one ever told him, and he never ashed. It is sure by this time that M. quite forgotten wliv he ever went to the Ruhr. He will remain there until something happens to provide us with |an answer." —A .and N.Z.