FRENCH GAMBLE IN RUHR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18334, 26 February 1923, Page 7

FRENCH GAMBLE IN RUHR.

LLOYD GEORGE'S VIEW.

PLAYING WITH PASSIONS.

A SIEGE OF GERMANY.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z. LONDON. Feb. 23.

Mr. Lloyd George, in his weekly article dealing with the international policies, today discusses the French operations in tho Ruhr. He writes: —

• The French Government, having conspicuously failed to win its anticipated coup, is doubling the stakes each time it loses. When and where will it end? It is ill gambling with human passions; they are all engaged in this wild venture. On both sides of the table are pride, greed, vanity, obstinacy, temper, combativeness, and racial antagonism, but also love of justice, hatred of wrong, and high courage. Each side draws from the same treasury of fiery human emotions, I and unless someone steps in to induce a ' halt, I fear the result will be devastating. J France has now abandoned the hope of ■ running the mines, railways, and workI shops of tho Ruhr by military agencies. You cannot shoot every worker who refuses to excavate so many hundredweight of coal daily, or drive locomotives, so a new policy has been improvised. It is nothing less than tho siege of Germany. Sixty million Germans are to be starved into submission. All classes are united in resistance; national pride, fortified by endurance, incites to sacrifice, and tho ports still are open. Meanwhile incidents may happen to create a situation that may baffle all the invaders' resources. French Opponents of "Ruhrism." '

Many are disposed to say that the invasion of the Ruhr was bound to come, and the sooner the safer. Get it over quickly; headache will bring repentance, and France will then settle down to a quiet life. I emphatically protest against this view. If this ill-judged enterprise had been delayed a few more months I do not believe any French Government would have embarked on it. There is no French statesman of any standing who, in his heart, believes in its wisdom. Now that the credit of France is involved in its success, they will all support it, but French opinion as a whole was rapidly moving away from this policy. Vacancies in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies afforded an opportunity of testing the real opinion, and the results were sensational. The champions of "Ruhrism" were beaten bv emphatic majorities. The masses of the French workmen ■ always opposed the policy, th* peasant has* had enough of military adventure. His sons were never numbered among the exempts, and the « losses in peasant homes were ' appalling. We cannot wonder, therefore, that by-elections in rural and urban France display unmistakable weariness of plans involving the march of armed Frenchmen into hostile territory. The sorrowing people of France have good reason to shrink from action that leads to further shedding of blood.

Keln Given to the Furies. That is why I steadily favoured every scheme that would have the effect of postponing the decision on the Ruhr question. Delay meant ultimate defeat of the Chauvinists! That is why they strove so bard to rush the Government in to precipitate action. The . abrupt termination of the Paris Conference was their opportunity they seized it with tingling fingers. Until then there had never been a clean break on which violence could be founded. The friends of moderation both here and on the Continent had seen to that, and Europe was saved the catastrophe of once more handing its destinies to the guidance of blind force. ( Unhappily, weariness or impatience induced the Paris negotiators, in a few hours, to drop the reins which for four years had held the furies from dashing along the career of destruction. Alternative plans might have been discussed with a little more persistence, and less pessimism might have persuaded Belgium, Italy, and Japan to aid our appeals to France to trust rather to the League of Nations than to the uncertainties of war. Neglected opportunities litter the path of this troublesome question. The Cannes conversations were broken as they were reaching fruition, and it will not surprise me to find that the whole cargo of reparations has disappeared beyond salvage with these shipwrecked negotiations.

Germany's Blunder at Genoa. Again, Germany threw away a' great opportunity at Genoa. True reparations were excluded, but the spirit engendered by a friendly settlement of all other outstanding questions would have rendered reasonable and temperate consideration of reparations inevitable. Germany, by its foolish staging of the Russian agreement, made all that impossible. Resentment and suspicion were once more equipped with the lash, and they used it relentlessly to drive out all goodwill for Germany from the congress. Another- lost opportunity then came with the ' Bankers' Committee. . The French Government testily declined to consider the essential conditions indicated by the bankers— lost opportunity, and Europe once more lumbered along the dreary way to seek another. Then came Mr. C. E. Hughes' famous speech at Newhaven. It was clearly the result of prolonged consideration, and was made four days before the Paris Conference. It was obviously intended to be discussed there. An endeavour has been made to minimise the importance of this American approach to Europe. It is incomprehensible to me how so momentous a pronouncement was treated as if it were merely the casual utterance of a politician who had to find some topic to illuminate his discourse. Another opportunity was lost; perhaps the greatest, perhaps the last. Never has luck striven so hard to save stupidity; but luck loses its temper easily, and then is apt to hit hard.