Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1920. FRANCE DISTRUSTS GERMANY.

Western Star, 16 April 1920, Page 2

Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1920. FRANCE DISTRUSTS GERMANY.

Despite the fact that the Kaiser has been dethroned, and that Germany is a republic, Republican troops have had to be sent to the Ruhr district, so the cables say, to put down revolutionaries who have been creating disturbances. There was, so it is stated, severe fighting, and, generally, things were far from being satisfactory. This is the Germlan account of -the condition of things. The French, however, who have a better and more intimate knowledge of the wily Bosche, declined to give credence to the story, and considered the presence of the Republican troops in the alleged disaffected area, a breach of the Peace Treaty, Ruhr being neutral ground. Incensed beyond measure at the audacity of the Germans, who are being encouraged in their crooked! courses by the peculiar action of America over the Peace Treaty, France proposed a, military advance into the Ruhr, but both Britain and Italy disagreed with the proposal, so‘ that France took the initiative and sent force, whereat there was great diplomatic hubbub. Viewing the whole course- of German action since the armistice, France was justified in her action. It was not the province of the Republican Government to send troops into a. neutral zone without having first consulted the Allies, who should have been assured beyondl the shadow o/f a doubt, that the disturbances were of such a nature as to seriously threaten the stability of Government, and the force should have worked in collaboration with the Allies. France has very good reason to bo suspicious of Germany, having learnt by past experience that Germany holds nothing sacred, not even its plighted word, when it comes to a question of national expansion or national existence. France did what she deemed the right thing to preserve her own safety. Of course there was the- usual plethora of words, but the honours remain with France, whose troops have advanced and are now in a position to stop anything not strictly in accord with tlie provisions of the Treaty.