THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1923. THE ADVENTURE OF FRANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18759, 12 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1923. THE ADVENTURE OF FRANCE.

Upon France is concentrated for the moment the attention of almost all the world. To the Allied Powers victory in the Great War was only a degree less costly than was defeat to Germany. In their endeavours to enforce the principle that the loser shall pay, the victors have found themselves in one quandary upon another, and now, more than four years after the armistice, they have given up the attempt to agree respecting the method of enforcing reparation payments from their Into enemy. Such is the position for the time being at least, a» between Great Britain and France. And in the developments that are following upon the abortive Paris Conference Great Britain stands perforce aside, and becomes, like other Powers, a spectator, while France takes the forefront of the stagp. The patience of France is exhausted, her wounds are still burning, devastation still awaits repair, and her exchequer is depleted. Germany, the traditional enemy and the source of much national woe, defeated but not invaded, and comparatively unscathed in her potentialities for wealth, is charged with trifling with her treaty obligations, with being obstiuately unwilling, rather than positively unable, to pay. The French view of the situation may be somewhat distorted, but it is readily intelligible. And, failing to persuade Great Britain that a more forcible policy is necessary to secure reparations from Germany, France is now acting alone. Her decision may he unwise, and the course of action which she is adopting may eventually recoil upon herself and upon Europe generally, but nothing will satisfy her people but that the matter shall bo put to the test. Thus there is energy and movement in lieu of discussion and negotiation. The name of Foch is once more to be conjured with. There are the marshalling of arms and the entraining of troops, and the military note is again in the ascendant. It is not war, this military occupation of German territory, that is in progress, but war's unfortunate aftermath, and all too melancholy u commentary upon the outcome of the efforts so far to bring about the enduring peace so much heralded, so confidently promised. France marches her troops into the Ruhr amid no acclamations save from French lips. The adventure, if it may ho so termed, is embarked upon amid circumstances that are fraught for the onlookers with doubt and misgiving. Certainly it has its spectacular and dramatic side, and even those who deem her in the wrong will not withhold a meed of admiration sit this fresh display of the indomitable spirit of France. Unfortunate indeed it will be for Europe should her insistence upon the letter of her bond with Germany bring, as an American senator suggest-, a judgment akin to that befalling Shylock. In German the word "Ruhr" signifies "stir and motion," even "disorder" ; and it is only too likely that the highly industrialised area of the Ruhr Valley under French military control will possess some of tho characteristics of a, slumbering volcano. The respect, however, which is accorded the strong hand is an essential factor in the French Government's calculations.

“BACK TO DUNEDIN.” A few prominent citizens have somiprivatcly mooted a project which, wo are inclined to think, has the makings of a pleasant and valuable realisation. The idea is to arrange a re-imion, on as large a scale as possible, of ex-Dunedin residents who, for one reason or another, have quitted the scene of their birth or youth and sought “ fresh woods and pastures new ” in various parts of the dominion. Dunedin, a.s has frequently been observed, occupies the honourable, and yet perhaps in some ways equivocal, position of having been, and indeed of still being, a chief source of training and .supply of professional, commercial, and industrial loaders in New Zealand;

and not of leaders only, for large numbers of good men and true are doing their inconspicuous but worthy share of the world’s and the country’s work in places distant from the Dunedin or Otago homes of their early days. In saying that Dunedin's distinction in respect to this matter of human supply was in some ways equivocal w© are thinking of the civic loss of personnel and enterprise, though there is no churlish disposition to grudge the transference of those who have been drawn northwards or in other directions by the openings offered in important centres and also in less developed districts. Anyhow, it is an indisputable fact that people deriving from this city are to be found scattered all over New Zea-

land, —people who retain an affectionate and even wistful affection for the locality from which, not without reluctance, they have migrated, and who, it may be, have often desired an opportunity of revisiting the old haunts and rekindling old friendships. It would certainly bo a capital thing if ah associated pilgrimage and re-union of as many as possible of these absent Dnncdinites, so to term them, were to bo arranged by means of an organisation able to procure advantages of cheap travel and to provide attractive programmes of instructive as well as entertaining occupation. A “ Back to Dunedin ” Week, if the enterprise were capably managed, as we may be sure it would be, could hardly fail to be useful, from the commercial as well as enjoyable from the social point of view. On the educational side ex-stud-ent; of the University of Otago and expnpils of tho primary and secondary schools, public and private, would fitly

bo invited to join in what would be a most interesting demonstration of scholastic solidarity, as it were; and on various other sides—-religious, commercial, industrial, sporting, and social—the affair should be eminently successful. It is suggested that the pilgrimage should forni part of the celebration of the usual February Carnival Week in 1924. So much careful organising work will he required that it would now be impossible to combine the “Back to Dunedin ” project with the observance of the festival of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Otago—the thrce-quarters-of-a-ceutury jubilee—in the coming

March and indeed, apart from the question of practicability, it might be said that there is an appreciable distinction between the underlying ideas of the respective occasions. The special “"Back to Dunedin” idea would perhaps tend to he lost in the larger jubilee sentiment. We do not know whether it would ho

feasible to let the new project stand entirely by itself, without association with any carnival fixture ; but that would be the most attractive arrangement. We commend the whole conception to tho attention of the Mayor, with whom, as the first citizen of Dunedin, the initiative in the promotion of the scheme must rest.