The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY z MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1923. THE BLACKENED SKY.

Southland Times, Issue 19101, 20 November 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY z MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1923. THE BLACKENED SKY.

There have been suggestions of late that M. Poincare is likely to reconstruct his policy with a view to winning back British sympathies, but there is no sign of any weakening of the French spirit, which appears at the moment to be showing more bitterness as a result of recent developments. M. Poincare will argue that Germany’s defiance is the climax of the programme of resistance to the Versailles Treaty, but he will find it difficult to convince Britain, Italy and even the Belgians that the Poincare pressure did not play a big part in driving the Germans to challenge the Allies. It is useless to try to explain the situation in tender phrases. The Germans have followed their renunciation of passive resistance with open defiance, which evidently will be intensified if the French insist on more sanctions as a punishment for the return of the ex-Crown Prince, and the future in the Reich is darker than it has been at any time since the armistice. To-day the most significant item of news is the British Government’s withdrawal of women from ail posts in the diplomatic stations in Germany. This can only mean that the Government is apprehensive of grave disorders in the country, intensified, maybe, by collisions with the Ifrench. General Dcgoutte has had to report the mishandling of members of the Allied Military Commission, an incident which may lead to some complications of a disagreeable nature. It is not stretching the truth to say that in the face of the chaotic conditions in Germany and the temper of the German people, thousands of whom are starving, the Berlin Government would find it a precarious business trying to make good guarantees of safe conduct to the Allied Military Commission, but the warning given by the Stresemann x Government is not likely to diminish the French demands. It looks as if the defiant attitude of the Germans is the outcome of desperation and despair, because unless the Germans have some new and cheap weapon of offence, they cannot dream of entering a conflict with France'with any hope of success. The French alarmist reports about German armament stores should be discounted. They disagree with the British accounts of the destruction of military material and seem to suffer a lot from exaggeration, but at the moment it is hard to convince the French people that Germany has not hidden, so securely that they cannot be found, vast stores of war material. France is suffering from nerves, but trouble may be expected from the forces at work in Germany itself, which may lead to a complete recasting of the Allied policy. Europe ifi facing a situation which contains the possibility of war, but her chief safeguard is that the people of France, of Italy,

of Britain do not want another war, and will probably say so emphatically if the opportunity arises. Much will depend on the fate of the Stresemann Cabinet in the next few days, but whatever happens it is fairly obvious that Mr Baldwin will not allow himself to be drawn into the conflict if one should arise.