BRITAIN’S NEEDS.

Southland Times, Issue 18970, 18 June 1923, Page 4

BRITAIN’S NEEDS.

After the Crimean War there was in the Old Country a large body of opinion which railed against the British policy of playing second fiddle to Napoleon 111., and the burden of the outcry then was that the interests of France were not wholly those of Britain, however much agreement there might be on certain points. A similar position has risen now, and we can see slowly but surely the re-assertion of the British claim to proceed firmly with the nation’s own requirements. Lord Derby’s statement that the unemployment problem in the Old Country demands that Britain and France should get as much as possible out of Germany is not a fair statement of the position if it suggests that the screw should be turned tighter, and it is not a fair interpretation of the Government’s attitude. The proper reading of Lord Derby’s advice is that France should be ready to abandon impossibilities and recognise the facts of Britain’s position. Although the German Note {nits forward proposals for international conferences which are unacceptable to the French, the offer from Berlin represents a basis for new negotiations between the Allies, and Lord Derby’s advice to Paris—he has all along shown himself to be ardently pro-French—-is that Britain’s interests cannot permit her indefinitely to remain passive while M. Poincare and his friends are injuring her during their efforts to smash Germany to the accompaniment of a chorus of demands for money and for protection against a revival of German strength. The

political disturbance in Belgium has no bearing on the Ruhr situation. For some years the Flemish question has divided Belgian opinion and the reconstruction of the Theunis Cabinet resulted from purely domestic causes. Belgium will stick to France, but it is obvious that Britain’s patience is dwindling rapidly, while Italy is ready to step in as soon as there is a chance of putting an end to the present deadlock. Berlin’s Note should open the way for a reconsideration of the whole position. M. Poincare cannot retreat very far without endangering his position in the French Chamber, but in spite of the French reports, it is obvious that the policy in the Ruhr, while it is oppressive and expensive to German industrialism, is also costly to France and is punishing Britain, and the French premier must realise that he must give way if he is going to get anything substantial as reparations. Further, military commitments in Germany will not help the situation and even a complete surrender by Berlin now will not provide a solution, because guarantees for excessive payments given this year will not save Europe from the economic effects two years hence.