The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1923 TEUTONIC STRENGTH.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 81, 10 August 1923, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1923 TEUTONIC STRENGTH.

The French people are so. entirely behind the movement for secWty behind the Rhine and for extraction of reparations by force, that it is difficult for the French Government to agree to anything which would even in appearance be taking a retrograde step. At first sight it would seem to be entirely a reason- 1 able thing to require that passive resistance in the Ruhr must be abandoned before France will entertain further German proposals. But the resistance complained of is not that of a few industrial magnates who could be fined or imprisoned. Nor is it proved that it has the support of the German Government. No doubt it has their sympathy. It is the resistance of over twelve million peoplo, disappointed by national defeat, and infuriated by the occupation of their country by their hereditary enemy. The Observer writes: "It is regarded in London as a puerile form of politics to expect the twelve million inhabitants of the Ruhr, already galvanised into a solidity of resistance which no army will ever overcome, to capitulate at the word of M. Poincare. In any event, no Gorman Government could promise the surrender of those twelve million people. Dr Cuno could do so only at the price of his own ' resignation, j The alternative, in present jconditj jpjw r probably be a Qfamm-

ist Government, whose promises to France or to anybody would not bo worth the paper they were written on." The Spectator wrote about the same time: "We shall be mad if wo let France go further on the road of peril without a clear warning from us that we cannot follow her or aid her to avoid the irrevocable consequences of her acts. We owe this to her We want to move in the light, not to flounder in the confusion of darkness." Reading behind all kinds of criticisms of the French action, and the apologists for it, there is the German determination to prepare for and await the pre-determined war of revenge, The same pre-determination smouldered in France for half a century. The French people know all about this an c j dread it. The error, if it be one, is in imagining that a future cjfastrophe can be avoided by a present policy dictated "by unreasoning fear of many, directed toward two wholly incompatible objects: one to make Germany pay huge sums in reparations, two, to make Germany incapable of payirig anything." Reason seems to be altogether on the side of moderation in exactment. Germany potentially is one of the richest countries in the world. She can pay anything u r ou reasonable guarantees of her industrial activities of given time. As again?t the claims of reason, the French see the unrepaired devastations of inconsiderate and brutal force. All sorts of rumors which reach French ears are in the air. Ludendqrff is said to be organising armies in Russia to be under his influence and disposition. Krupp also is busy in Russia, establishing factories for guns and ammunition which are working "day and night." Besides all ibis there is a "Pan-Ger-man League to which a large proportion of the twenty million Germans living in Central Europe, fci% outside Germany, belong they must be taken into account when estimating the Teutonic strength." This is the tangle the British Government has got to get out of as it best can.