War Horror Makes French Hope For Peaee

Chronicle (Levin), 10 September 1949, Page 4

War Horror Makes French Hope For Peaee

«- "In France the horror of war is a deep-rooted sen'-iment," said M. Henri Rollet,. First Seqretary of the French Legation, Wellington, speaking at a meeting of the Levin branch of the United Nations Association this week. "It is not eno'ugh for us that war shou'd finish 'well' insofar as war can be said to finish well. The thing is that it should be avoided." Much of the ravage of France was caused by the bombardments of the liberation forces. "We have no desire to haye to be liberated a second time. This will explain some of the French reactions mentioned in the Press from time to time to the various negotiations designed to ensure a closer union between the countries of Western . Europe and on the subject of the German problem. "On the one hand," said M. Rollet, "France- wishes that this union should not remain on the purely military or diplomatic plane ; but that it should have a solid economic andf'.poht'ical * basls wlthput which there -can be no effective common e .strategy or diplomacy "in the time of *peace. Whai conCerns us is not so much .winning the war as' winnirtg the peaee. On the military plane we refuse to resign ourselves to seeing our country become for the third time a battle .field, and we consider as extremely dangerous any plan of campaign resting on this hypothesis. >. • "Although prepared to welcome Oermany into the European Union, we neYertheless hold that this operation should not be undertaken at the expense of our security. The French people have no wish to undergo again the experiences pf between the wars and to w&tch the progressive breaking down of those feW guarantees which could have avoided for Oermany, France and for the whole world the most revolting and most absurd of conflicts. In particular, they hold that the tremendous industrial potential of the Ruhr should not again fall under exclusivelv German control, permitting ' the militarist and r'evengeful elements, already beginning to agitate, to use it forthe preparation of another attempt at European hegemony." Rfeferring to France's external policy, M. Rollet said. that in the face of a doctrine of redoubta.ble force which, by its penetration, was at the root of the present international unrest it would not sufflce to conclude militarv alliances or diplomatic agreements. "We must succeed in opposing it with a superior ideal— that of an International collaboration infinitely closer than it has been up to the present and exceedingly outworn limits of national sovereignties." M. Rollet concluded by earnestly urging that the nations workmg for economic reconstruetion and world peaee would devote all their energies to that end without le'tting themselves be distracted by alarmist campalgns, useless vituperation or mutual recrimination.