EUROPEAN OUTLOOK.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15353, 29 September 1923, Page 5

EUROPEAN OUTLOOK.

POINCARE’S PREDICAMENT SERVING MARS AND MAMMON. GROWING CHAOS IN GERMANY. Australian and N_Z. Cable Assn. - Received September 29, 8.5 a-m. LONDON, September 27. Mr Lloyd George has supplied the following copyright article to the'N.Z. and Australian Press Association. “Corfu shows some improvement, and Fiume is no worse. When a patient is desperately ill it is' something that a threatened complication is not developing. If the Council of ,Ambassadors'can ultimately lure Italy out of Corfu they will have succeeded in preventing a squalid blow from festering inio a dangerous sore. Fiume is back to the negotiation stage; the temperature is distinctly lower there. “In France and. Germany the process of slow strangulation is proceeding to impending ruin, and it is a great feat of national endurance that Germany held out so long. When the end comes it will be by agreement or by chaos. Since the prospect of arrangement seems remote, the outlook for confusion is distinctly promising. Herr Stresemann will find it difficult to carry Germany with him on any terms of capitulation which will satisfy M. Poincare. It. is M. Poincare’s repeated insistence upon France’s intention to remain in possession of the most important industrial area of Germany for a whole generation . which has pro- . longed resistance. If when passive resistance gives way, the French Government proposes magnamlnous terms, reconcilation and reparation may still march hand-in-hand, but M. Poincare must conciliate two parties'. The first is imperialist France, which only cares for dominion: the other section is peasant and bourgeois France, which wants its money back for use in repairing the devastated areas. It is difficult to serve Mars and Mammon, but it has been done. There is a cloud of witnesses among the war profiteers in all lands who will testify to the possibility. There may be glory . and power in annexing the Ruhr and the France, but there will be no cash in it for the French peasant, who prefers ready cash to the rumble of tho distant drum, "In the coming March elections M. Poincare will want the support of shrewd peasants and rentiers, but. M. Poincare must also think of the forge masters and financiers who look with greedv eyes at . the infinite possibility of Ruhr coat, and Ruhr furnaces and factories. M.' Poincare must satisfy the peasant by showing German gold flowing into French coffers, .and he , musl 'satisfy Hie iron and steel mas- - levs hv giving them Uie prospect of controlling llm rich industries of Ruhr There is no room for magnanimity in such a predicament- “ Reports that come to me from travellers in Germany tell of growing chaos. Robberies for clothes and food arc common, hungry prowlers infest the night in many German cities, me bewilderment of the mark is,paralysing business. No one knows what to order or what price most agile brain finds it difficult to do business when millions jump about like grasshoppers on a summer day’. Life iu Berlin is like an ill-provided lunatic asylum. That nothing worsehas so far- happened is a triumph for German discipline and self-restraint but things are getting worse. Respect for authority is l weaker, and -winter is coming. Something must be done to improve the situation before winter’U terms can be arranged which will not throw Germany into revolutionary tumult.' ■ , ■ . .-v “In France the Baldwin-Poincare communique is hailed as a complete victory for Poincare. In England the Government’s. tamo trumpeter proclaims Mr Baldwin’s triumph. I think M. Poincare persuaded Mr Baldwin that it is now too late for, the British Government to take any separate action as the French' Government is in possession of irrefraglble proof that Germany is on tho point of capitulation. At best this meant that before Christmas France, Belgium and Italy will lie receiving monthly deliveries of Gcrman coal, which were interrupted by the Ruhr invasion. As for reparations in cash instalments, Germany is less j able to pay than she was a year ago. ; So France will remain in the Ruhr as she will not receive reparations. The j future will depend upon German leadership. There may be -internal disintegration and localised anarchy, during which Germany will bo helpless and broken; but Germans' are not Russians; they are a highly-educated, thoroughly-trained people with a deep sense of what is due to the Stale, ihey •- will pull themselves -together ultimately, and when- they do France and i Belgium will be cleared out ot Ruhr j without any reparations. The Russian ; alliance saved France from humiliation i after IS7O, and Russia is still alive. ; When she recovers from her wounds j and fever, Russia will have much to ; say about frontiers imposed upon her . in weakness. France can prevent Germany from re-arming, but she cannot . prevent Germans from re-arming Rus- ; sia. M. Poincore’s triumph may cost f France more than .the brutalities of i Bismarck cost Germany.”