NAVAL CONFERENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 29 March 1930, Page 12

NAVAL CONFERENCE

FRANCE SHOWS FEAR AND MISTRUST GENUINELY DESIRES WORLD PEACE (By W.S.R.) The most obstinate delegation lit the Naval Conference, has been that of I l 'ranee. This occasioned no surprise to careful .students of international affairs. I! is not due to a bellicose attitude on (he part of the statesmen who represent France at St. .lames, or to any warlike spirit in the French nation. France genuinely desires world peace, and is willing to lake her full share in the work of creating machinery which she believes essential to guard inviolate the freedom of nations from wanton attack. TARDIEU AND BRIAND The spokesmen for Franco at (Ik; conference are M..M. Tardieu and Brinnd; both first class statesmen, and the latter a proven friend of the cause of world peace.

Andre Tardieu was little known outside France until the Naval Conference. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the first time when the Great War burst upon Europe in 1914. lie served as Captain with the French Army: saw much lighting; was both wounded and gassed; and when pronounced physically unfit for further military service, he re-entered the Chamber of Deputies to give his country political service. ''Tiger'' Clemeneeau was then at the helm of France as Premier, and Tardieu became his right hand man. After the Treaty of Versailles. France turned agains* Olcmoiiceau, to whom the nation had presented a sword of honour at the victorious close of and M. Tardieu with him fell from power. In the election of 1924 he failed to vo tain even his seat in the French Chamber. Like Clemeiiceau, he was by profession a journalist; and his fortunes fell so low that his journal failed. He was returned to the Chandler of Deputies in 1926. became Premier, and Tardieu accepted office in his Cabinet as Minister of the Interior, and became his lieutenant. His stand for the claims of France at the Naval Conference may be due more to the traditions which lie has inherited from his political chiefs than to his war service as a soldier. France, strong, free, secure, playing a worthy part in the affairs'of the big world, is his political faith and passion! And there can be no doubt as to his) sincerity. M. Briand, his illustrious colleague, is more widely known. He was M. Tardieu's predecessor in the Premiershy); and, the fact that lie took office miner the man who displaced him, accepting the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, proclaims the man. He is in the forefront of leadership in the, League of Nations. His name will be historically associated with a great instrument making for world peace, officially known as the Pact of Paris. This is popularly calod the Kcllogg Pact. But in Europe it is more correctly called the Kellogg-Briand Pact; for M. Briand in Paris drafted the final formula. This Pact, in which the nations disavow war as an instrument of national policy has been often quoted during the proceedings :8f tho Naval Conference. M. Briand-sincerely adheres to it, and so does France; but both he and the nation are fully aware of its limitations.

THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE To tho surprise of many M. Briand has stood solidly with his chief in voicing the claims of France. And all who have followed his career as a statesman will readily admit that such advocacy carries his judgment as well as expresses his loyalty. And a good case can be made for the French claim. France wants security. Her first demand is not for a-big navy. It is for guarantees. It asks the strong Powers, and America, who have been singing anthems to peace, to commit themselves to the necessary task of an organised peace. France is challenging them to act on the implications of the Pact of Paris. War by the terms of this convenant has been forsworn; To draw the sword is now in international law a crime.

But do laws against crime beget or .make possible a real security apart from instruments to enforce such? In civilised lands the freedom and life and property of individuals are normally safe. But would there be security in law if there were no police, and magistrates, and judges, with tho power of law enforcement?

Such power of enforcement the Peace Pact at present lacks. America" turned down the League of Nations which its President secured as part of the peace settlement following the war. And, to the thought of France, she (America) should now be prepared to take a share in creating police measures which would guard the nations from wanton war. ITALY Then France is nervous about her southern neighbour, Italy. For Italy to-day spells Mussolini. And his dream of a modern Italy which would show the virtues, the courage, the governing genius of Roman ancient glory, is disturbing and fraught with menace to the peace of Europe. Happily, Italy is comparatively poor, and this fact discounts the great Italian's sinister sabre-rattling. But France's southern frontier touches Italy, and her Mediterranean coasts are vulnerable to an enemy attack by sea. THE ANC4LO-AMERICAN ENTENTE There is also jealously, not untinged with suspicion, at the friendly understanding between England and America. Until the Washington Conference of 1921, America, at every naval conference, stood up against the traditions of British naval claims in wartime as champion of the rights of neutral nations. And it may seem to many beside Frenchmen that the Anglo-American agreement in naval matters, may work out as I lie' joint sharing of the Trident. To British and American statesmen the settlement of traditional differences regarding sea law, is an immense stride towards international peace. We believe that neither in the minds of President Hoover nor Ramsay MacDonald, nor in fact, lias this friendly understanding any sinister intention. ' It is dedicated r i«; t in national interests alone or mainly, but to world welfare. But it will need time to prove this. ft is to lie regretted that the spirit nl' France has shown fear and mistrust at the conference. But it has been neither bluff nor antagonism to the movement towards world peace on the part of her statesmen: but the logical insistence that the sublime negations of

the Pact; of Paris shall he translated into terms of practical security, the responsible organisation of which no nation will shirk. International peace law, will then have at its service international police power, which shall prevent a nation gaining anything by violence, and compel resort to law to secure international justice.