FRANCO-BRITISH ENTENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20438, 14 December 1929, Page 12

FRANCO-BRITISH ENTENTE.

A very useful reminder has been given by Mr. Henderson, the Foreign Secretary, that much good has come, and is likely to come, from the maintenance of close friendship between France and Britain. There is an undoubted risk, in these days of earnest search for a basis of world-wide understanding, that consideration of plans to foster it may becomo too vague and general to be of much service. "The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth, but wisdom is before the face of him that hath understanding." In this ancient dictum is a counsel to which even the most modern statesmanship can profitably give heed. As Mr. Henderson evidently remembers, there was a day when "the entente cordiale" was more than a pretty phrase: it exercised a powerful charm in making the peoples fronting each other across the Channel realise that, whatever history recorded of their seemingly settled hostility, they could co-oper-ate to care for the peace of Europe as well as their own interests. This they have since done. Indeed, the beginning of the entente lies further back than that mutual understanding. A vital fact of modern history is the steadily enduring and deepening friendship of these two peoples throughout a century. There has been sporadic friction, but the disposition to work together has suffered no serious check. It is no exaggeration to say that this disposition contributed an essential factor in the creation of the League of Nations, and Mr. Henderson does well to emphasise the truth that in the early years of the League it was the French and British nations who did most effective work in. building it up. Mr. Mac Donald's express conviction that "joint action between France and England" is essential to the good of Europe and the world does not overstate the case. The British people are prepared to welcome closer friendship with the United States and Japanto cito two powerful nations far afield—yet it is obvious that a breach with France, even a lessening of mutual cordiality between these near neighbours, would jeopardise all plans for universal peace. In the critical discussions of the approaching Five Powers Naval Conference much will depend on the preservation of the entente now happily become traditional.