BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1716, 5 April 1913, Page 5

BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

, — MILITARY MD NEEDED AGAINST GERMANY. Ds Telegraph—Press Association—Oouyright Paris, April 3. General do Lacroix, formerly Generalissimo of the 'French array, in au article in "Lo Temps," says: "It is a fallacy to argue that tho 1 support o£ tho British Navy would bo worth half n, million men to France. It would make no difference. It 'would he impossible for Britain to learo tho defence of her Continental interests to, Russia. Napoleon was not beaten at Trafalgar, but at Waterloo. Britain's support or the Meuso would counterbalance Germany's numerical superiority. Only a good expeditionary army of fifteen or twenty divisions would guarantee Britain and Franco victory." IS THE EUROPEAN CAREER OF GREAT BRITAIN OVER? Is tho European career o£ Great Britain over That is tho fundamental question behind many of tho discussions of tho past few months which have aroused probldm onco moro in so many diverso ways. "We know," says the ' "Pall, Mall Gazette," "thait tho cowardice of politicians' wraps itself in the illusion that our 'European career' is over; that we shall never again require to send an.expedition to the Continent; tha't we can rest behind the shelter of the fleet and watch tho straggles o£ our neighbours with a smug thankfulness that w© have no land frontiers. And what wo know also is that our whole experience shows tho contempt which fact and geography havo- hurled upon this impulso of insulation. "Can any serious thinker contend, for example, that it would bo nothing to us if a. Power hostile to ourselves came to dominate tho wholo north-western coast of Europe, girdling us with n chain of fortresses and naval bases from tho_ Cattegat to tho English Channel? Jnd if suoh a menace means- anything for us, how could it be averted except by resuming the hiatorio struggle for the -balance of power, and striving with nil our might to, avert tho mastery. of Europe by a Colossus? Since tho very dawn of modern times wo havo saved ourselves by saving our neighbours. Cromwell, Chatham, and Pitt all understood that the fate of tho Low Countries involved the fato of England. Blenheim and AVolterloo were foucht alike for tho safety of the Narrow Seas. There is not a Dominion under tho British flag whoso destiny is not vitally affected by tlio bid of a sinda Power for European supremacy, and by the part which the Mother Country should bo nble to pltiy in resisting a Continental aggrandisement which, after it had destroyod tho liberty of our neighbours, would be fatal to ourselves., "That is tho secular crisis of Europe, and it.is, by all the signs, hastening onco more to its consummation," adds tho "Pall Mall:" "If wo havo no Army our part in it may bo foiled, and the issue which that Army deoided in former centuries may bo reversed. These are consequences to which the British people, for all we know, may bo resigned. But it should know them." |