The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1920. FRANCO – BRITISH RELATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Issue 170298, 17 August 1920, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1920. FRANCO - BRITISH RELATIONS.

The French rejection of British policy in regard to Russia is not a reason for upbraiding' France, or pretending-that, after all, the continuance of the Entente Gordiale is not. a very important matter. It is essential that the Entente Powers should be able to work together, because Europe is not yet settled, and their agreement is necessary to its peace. Moreover, if two Powers united by so many ties as Britain and France cannot agree upon a common policy,. how can one expect that the forty races of the League of Nations will be able to agree on anything when the time comes for that body to take up the duties of the Supreme Council? The best that can be said of the Anglo-French

difference is that it may not be found to touch, fundamental issues. Even so, it -will be a good thing when it is ended. That the agreement Avhich on the whole has marked the counsels of the tv.o PoAvers with regard to European problems should have been disturbed, is not surprising. Dissension would nave appeared before now if each, country, for the sake of agreement and of getting something done, had. not allowed its own policy to be modified in practice by the other's on many occasions since the Peace of Versailles was signed. In regard to Germany there have always been two views to be taken. ICost Frenchmen mistrust their former foes. "Once a German, always a German" is their motto. The only thing to do with such a people is to keep them down, because, if they once rise from the ground, they will be .as dangerous as they were before. British opinion rather A-iews the Germans as a people Avho are not so much inherently bad as easily misled, and Avho may and should do better i><-av that the militarism they admiral has proA-ed a failure and their Prussian teachers haA-e been wholly discredited. Frenchmen may retort against that faita. that they know* the Germans Letter, being their neighbours, a-id the British were too trustful before,, but the Avorld would not be worth living in if some hopes for' its improvement were not 1 old. In regard to liussia again, rhe French. GoA-ernment cannot understand any attitude toAvarus Bolshevism except that of a*iceasing war. Its extremism is easily accounted for. France is nearer fo liussia and to Germany than is Great Britain. Its risks are more.

The Avorst thing that can *9 said_of the French jjolicy is that it is impracticable. Fifty million people in Germany cannot be held down indefinitely. When the British Government is accused, as it has been before now, of putting German before French, interests, the answer is that to help Germany is the only way ot helping France. When it comes to fighting- Bolshevism, France can no more find armies to do that than Great Britain can, and it has been shown that halfhearted fighting- means no more than assisting' Bolshevism, and throwing- good money after bad. If Mr Churchill's policy, of unstinted force, could have been carried out two years ago, scores of thousands of Jives might have been saved in liussia and untold misery prevented by a very shore campaign, but it was not practicable, and it is not worth thinking aboiit now. There is, no dittejfnce between the Allies on the main issue now affecting Europe, that an independent Poland must be maintained. They will all be equally hostile to the Soviet if that promise of its dictators is transgressed. The Labour parties 'liave a strange affection for the Bolsheviks eve a while they condemn. their principles and each visit of Laboui delegates to their country brings back a tale more revolting than the last, but presumably there are limits which even they v t uld set to coercion that might be attempted by the conquerors Polish workers. The actual difference between French and British policy is not very great, since -it -is officially stated' now 1 that France will not give General Wrangel any military assistance, and the military assistance ! she could give him would not amount to much. It is a pity, however, that a difference has occurred which must cause new hopes to arise among the worst sections of the Germans. The idea that America will do more for France than Great Britain I has done or is ready to do is the most forlorn hope. Mr Wilson's i policy, as expounded in Notes, does not go inueh further than that of France's other Allies, and the "re-insurance Treaty,'" 5 | to which he agreed, for British and American help to France in the event of a new German attack has yet to be endorsed by I the American Senate. The President may denounce the Bolshevists, but that will not end them. It is not clear that he will acknowledge General Wrangel in the present conditions.