FRANCE IN QUICKSAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18346, 12 March 1923, Page 7

FRANCE IN QUICKSAND.

LLOYD GEORGE'S VIEW. NO ONE TO SOUND RETREAT. ANNEXATION SCHEMES, WARTIME ALLIES IGNORED. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. A. asd N.Z. LONDON. March 9. Mr. Lloyd George, in his weekly article, deals with the danger in the Ruhr. Ho writes: "When you have walked some distance into a quicksand, and are sinking deeper and 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 stand just fast, for that is inevitable destruction. The French Government is clearly of opinion that its safety lies in marching further into the quagmire. So more German cities have been occupied, more burgomasters and officials expelled, more men and boys shot in the streets,more black troops imported, and more regulations and decrees issued. There is more depression of the French, Belgian, and Italian exchanges, more confusion in Central Europe's business. In a sentence, there is more quaking and less solid coal. But for the fatuous invasion France would in the past six or seven weeks havo received from the Ruhr nearly 3,000,000 tons of coal and coke, instead of the 50,000 tons actually received Courage Required to Withdraw. "No wonder M. Loucheur .stated flatly in the French Chamber of Deputies that ho did not approve of the Ruhr enterprise. He has one distinct advantage over the Ruhr plungershe knows something shout the business. He is also an admirable judge of to-morrow's weather, a rare endowment among politicians. Any simpleton cr.in tell you which way the winds are blowing to-day. but it requires a man of special insight to forecast the direction it will blow to-morrow. M. Loucheur is owe of those well-equipped weather prophets. So he satisfies the opinion of to-day by supporting M. Poincare, and safeguards his position against, to-mor-row's change by stating that he disapproves of the policy he supports. "Will the French Government try to extricate itself from tho difficulties into w*ich it has precipitated France and Europe ? I fear not. Heedlessness rushes a 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 erf courage. There are further reasons why the present Government of France will flounder further into the quicksand. The trouble to-day in France is that every alternative leader disapproves of this enterprisebelieves it must ultimately fail. On the other hand, there is no prominent figure in French politics 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, Franca would have emerged triumphantly from out her financial worries. No French statesman would dan: face that deadly accusation. So the present French Government is tied to the saddle of its charger and forced to go on. Propounding a New Treaty. "Another explanation of the difficulties of withdrawing lies in the increasing fury of the original fomenters of this rashness. Last week I gave a summary of their ambitious plans of syndicating European resources. This week they propound a new treaty, which would supersede the Versailles Treaty. Boundaries are to be revised, rich provinces and towns practically annexed, Ruhr coal is to be harnessed to Lorraine coal, and Germany reduced to complete economic subjection. There has been nothing comparable to these ideas since the Norman conquest. Needless to say, Britain and the United States are not to be invited to this new peace conference. They will bo graciously informed of the conditions of the new peace when it is finally established by French arms. The Fritish Empire, which raised millions of men to liberate French soil from the German invaders, and lost hundreds of thousands of its best young lives in the effort, is not even to be consulted a to a settlement which its losses alone made possible. The United States, who came to the rescue with millions of its bravest, is barely worth a sentence in these ravings of brains intoxicated with an unwholesome mixture of hatrod, greed, and military arrogance. "The French Government is not committed by any overt declarations to j these schemes, but it is ominous that they issue from pens whose insistent prodding has driven this Government to its present action. Up to the present ho repudiation has come from the head of the Govern .lent. Pledges for reparation and security will cover a multitude of aggressions. Trench Demands Not Yet Stated. " I have p: .used the Blue Book on the Paris Conference, anxious to find out exactly what M. Poincare proposed to demand of Germany as a condition of submission to the French will I have read his speeches in vain. It is true he was never asked the question. That sounds incomprehensible. Everyone was engaged in such a hurry to break up tho conference and put an end to the disagreeable disagreements, that it seems never to have occurred to them to ask this essential question, and the party principally concerned was not represented. No one knows the terms on which the French Army is prepared to evacuate Ruhr. "Mr. Bonar Law could not explain to I the House of Commons, for no one ever I told him, ai dhe never asked. lam sure that by this time M. Poincare has quite forgotten why he ever went to the Ruhr, and he will remain there until something happens to provide us with the answer."