The Souhtland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1923. BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Southland Times, Issue 18938, 11 May 1923, Page 4

The Souhtland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1923. BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

On the heels of the vindictive sentence imposed on the directors of Krupp’s, under circumstances which will not increase the world's opinion of French justice, the Parisian press has displayed not a little anger in its comment on the statement by Mr Stanley Baldwin on France’s reply to the German Note. France and Britain, it would appear, are moving further apart as a result of ths events in the Ruhr, particularly as there has more than once cropped up the suspicion that France has attempted to bring about a new bloc isolating Britain in Europe. Last year there was a suggestion that M. Poincare was working toward a new alignment having as its object a conjoining of France, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Russia. M. Heriot, who travelled in Russia as a trade emissary, returned to Paris to give his countrymen favourable reports concerning the Bolsheviks, but the attitude of Mussolini brought the effort to a prompt and unsatisfactory conclusion, and Moscow also was suspicious of the Heriot blandishments. It is difficult to see how the Ruhr adventure can be continued very long, however, without the serious working of a change in the relations between the two countries. Britain’s attitude throughout has been one of patience, but there are signs that the Imperial Government is not viewing the progress of events in Germany quite as calmly as it did three months ago. France may ask if she or Gehnany is to pay for the areas wrecked by the war, but Britain may also inquire if she is to suffer because the French adventure in the Ruhr is not profitable. Sir Edward Grigg, who is well known to us in this part of the world, put the position fairly in his maiden speech in the House of Commons last March. He referred to the fact that the French incursion had held up one British firm's export of yarn to the value of £250,000 and other manufacturers had suffered similarly. He saw in the situation a departure from the Treaty of Versailles, and a move into a “new, dangerous, and volcanic region of politics.” M. Poincare had admitted that the occupation of the Ruhr was economically unprofitable, and had followed this by stating that the French would not leave Essen until every penny was paid by the Germans, and also the cost of the occupation of the Ruhr. This was beyond the terms of the Treaty. Again, the Franco-Belgian occupation abrogated the functions of the International Commission, the duty of which was to secure the free navigation of the Rhine to all countries. Sir Edward Grigg then proceeded to quote from an article by M. Phillippe Millet, a French publicist of moderate views and strongly favourable to

Britain. M. Miffed whining a “scheme of peace", set down as France's essential requirements:

That France should secure the permanent international control of the left bank of the Rhine; the permanent international control of the Rhine railways, with French and Belgian predominance on an international body which was to exercise that control; the permanent secession to France of the Saar mines; and the permanent, annexation of the Saar territory and the Rhineland.

If that, is the programme put forward by a moderate Frenchman, no wonder many of France’s friends are becoming alarmed. The desire of the British people must be to incline in the direction of France and away from Germany, but the British Empire cannot in justice stand silent while Germans and German territory are alienated from Germany, and the stage is set for a future explosion. The fears expressed by Sir Edward Grigg in March must be doubled now that France’s tendency to go “on her own” has increased. The Krupp sentences will not improve matters, but they are not enough to make London move. Of more importance is Mr Baldwin’s frank statement which has moved the Parisian journals to bitter retorts, because it discloses a change in the British tone.