Continent Unhinged

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 83, 13 August 1923, Page 5

Continent Unhinged

MODERN TOWER OF BABEL. (Received 8.5 a.m.) : London, August 11. Copyright.) Mr Lloyd George writes: What a muddle it all is. Prance and Germany are both anxious to settle, but are too proud to say so. Belgium is sorry she ever entered the Ruhr, but cannot get out of it. Every time she tries to get away, Prance pulls her back roughly by the tail of her coat, so she has to do sentry at Essen, whilst her friend is leading a wild life at home. Italy has forgotten she ever sanction the occupation, and her moral indignation is mounting rapidly, although it has not yet risen to a height which is visible across the Alps.

Britain is growling ana exchanging futile notes of dissatisfaction with everybody, ' France and Germany alike.

The confusion of tongues is deafening and paralzying. No one is quite happy except the spirit of mischief, who is holding his sides with laughter. He never had such a time 'not since the Tower of Babel, and "this time it may end in a second j deluge.

The horror of the Great War seems to have unhinged the European mind. The blood pressure is still very high, and the excitement over the Ruhr does not seem to improve it. When the diligent historian, a generation hence, some of the articles written and the speeches delivered, ho will recognise the ravings of a Continent whose mental equilibrium has been upset by a great shock..

The real issue involved in all this struggle is comparatively simple. J How much can Germany pay, and: how can she pay? America, Britain, Italy, and Germany are all agreed, that the only way to settle the question is to appoint competent experts to report upon it. The Pope has also blessed this obvious suggestion. France, on the contrary, says it is a question to be determined by guns and generals, both being equally well fitted for gthafe task, and Germany must present an account to the mitrailleuse, and argue •her case before a' "seventy-five". i Although I have no fear in recalling my predictions |n previous articles, I hesitate to hazard a fresh forecast, but one may review t;f? possibilities and note the drift ot the whirling current. In assessing the chances, you must begin with some knowledge of the man who will decide the event. M. Poincare is a man of undoubted ability and patriotism, but he is also a man who lives in a world of prejudices, so dense that they obscure the facts. In his last note, he says the conferences' ultimatums of the past four years have got nothing out of Germany.

WHAT ARE THE FACTS? J During three and a half years preceding the Ruhr invasion, Germany paid to the Allies in cash and kind, over ten milliard gold marks—J a considerable effort for a country! just emerged from an exhausting war, and whose foreign trade was , down seventy per cent. You might! imagine that the man who takes the grave step of ordering armies to invade his neighbour's territory, would have taken the trouble to ascertain the elementary facts of the

case. J Will the next three andahalf years bring anything approximating that amount? It is a safe statement, to make that no one in charge of the French movements anticipated resistance approaching in stubbornness that which has been encountered. The friendly press both in France and here foretold Ow spfeedy collapse of the German opposition, and all tho French plans were based on that assumption.

Soldiers estimate resistance In) teams of material and trained men.! Statesmen too oft .n build their hopes on the same shallow found-;, ationr,. They never allow for the indomitable reserves of the human, heart, which do not figure In the ! army lists or statesmen's annuals.' The resistance of Paris in 1870 was as great a surprise to Bismarck as the stubbornness of the Ruhr min-j ers is to M. Polncaro to-day. There were few men in England who; thought the Boer peasants could continue the .their resistance for tbree mentis after our armies;.

reached South Africa. The Northern States of America never contemplated the possibility of a five years' struggle with a blockaded, starved, and overwhelmed £onfed|» eracy. The war of 1914-19 was littered . with miscalculations attributable to the blind refusal of the rulers and their advisers to recognise the human element as a factor in the reckoning. THE RUHR TRAGEDY. The Ruhr tragedy is not the first, nor will it be the last, to be initiated by a facile memoranda framed by the General Staffs and civilian functionaries, drawing inspiration from pigeon holes. Whatever becomes of this episode, it is already Clear that the estimates have been hopelessly falsified. There are already as many Frenchmen in the Ruhr as Napoleon commanded at Waterloo. As to the coal they have sent across the frontier in six months, about equal to one month's delivery by the~Germans during the period of default which provoked the invasion, desperate efforts have been mado to. satisfy French and foreign opinion that

resistance is gradually breaking down. Rubbish has been shovelled into waggons in order to swell the quota of coal seize<j everywhere, even in the streets. Monsieur Trocquer, who was in charge of the transport arrangements, breezily challenges the critics to look at the mounting pyramids of his dust-cart collections, and rejoice with him in the triumph of French organisation. Alas! Trocquer's Celtic fire, even when fed by the sweepings of the Ruhr, cannot keep, going the Lorraine blast furnaces, so there is disappointment and discontent among the forge masters pf France. All the same, there must be a limit to human endurance. ESther France or Germany must give .way in the end.

FRANCE'S HONOR AT STAKE. 1 In answering these questions, one must remember that France's honor ; is involved in the success. Every j Frenchman knows her prestige would be damaged if she failed. That is why statesmen who disapprove of the invasion support the Government to bring it to a succes- ' ful end. And here France has a ! legitimate complaint regarding her Allies. It is all very well for Italy I to counsel wisdom. Signor Mussolini was present at the "hush" Conference which sanctioned the invasion. He fixed the price of assent in the coal tonnage, and that price ha 3 been regularly paid. Belgium is getting scared at the swelling magnitude of the venture, but she has committed her own honor as well as that of France to carrying it through. I am sorry to think that Britain is not free of some responsibility in the matter. It is true that her representatives disapproved of the enterprise, but not on the grounds of Right or Justice; on the contrary, while expressing grave doubt as to i the ultimate success, they wished j France's Government well in the [ enterprise. Not one of the Allies is j in a position with a clear conscience to urge France to haul down the

flag. There is only one course which could be urged on France consistent with French honour, and that is, the reference of the dispute to the League of Nations. That would be the enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles. That suggestion the British Government has refused to press on France. It may he assumed that France will insist at all costs on enforcing her will. AN OLD FRENCH DREAM. Incidents inseparable from foreign occupation have exasperated German opinion, and reached the depths of hatred never stirred even by the Great War.

The deportation of fifteen thousand Germans from their homes in the Ruhr, repressions and shootings, and the myriad insolences of unchallengeable force and hatred are bad negotiations Therf Is a movement to create a Rhinefand Republic, fostered by French agencies and financed by French subventions. If it ij declared, Prussia will not be allowed to suppress it. We may therefore soon witness a Rhineiand Republic wnose glorious Independence will he jealously guarded by coloured warriors of Senegambia or Cochin China. If Germany dissolves, then the Rhineland and the Ruhr will remain under French dominion..., France would not secure the reparations, but she would enjoy the security and conjectures of an enormously? fls&auoed pow«r of the world. An

old French dream would be realised. Bismarck's work would be undone, and Napoleon's restored and perpetuated. There is' an old Welsh saying: ] "It is easy to kindle a fire , oa an old hearth-stone." | This idea of a Rhineland under > French domination is an old hearth- ■ stone of Charlemagne. JYlazarin , sought to re-light its flames. Nap- ! clean kindled on it a blaze that I scorched Europe, and Napoleon the Third had hopes of warming his I hands at the glowing embers . Now | the great victory of 1918 has once more set French ambition to revive the fire on the old hearthstone. i ■. It is a bad. lookout for Europe.