The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1920. UPHOLDING THE PEACE TREATY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 166, 9 April 1920, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1920. UPHOLDING THE PEACE TREATY

The decisive action taken by the French Government with a view to enforcing the observance of the Peace Treaty conditions in the Rhine neutral zone has perhaps intensified an already critical situation. It cloes not by any means follow, however, that this action is in any respect open to criticism. To-day's cablegrams suggest that the British Government, as well as that of Italy, is in full sympathy with the French attitude, and as the position is outlined it is difficult to see how the Allied Powers could, have taken any other view. It is the cardinal fact of the situation that when Germany moved troops into the Ruhr district she violated the conditions of the Peace Treaty as definitely, though not as grossly, as she violated international obligations when she invaded Belgium in 1914. France had to choose between acting or allowing the Treaty of Versailles to be treated before her eyes as a scrap of paper —this too in the knowledge that the dominant parties in Germany arc only too eager to develop such precedents and build upon them. As far as can be. judged at present, France has acted with decision, but at the same time with commendable restraint. German special pleaders, as might be expected, doing their utmost to put the action of their late enemy in the worst light, possible, but they are making out a remarkably noor case. The Jicrlinrr Tar/rhlntt■ asserts til nf. the military action taken bv France fin compelling the withdrawal of German troops from the neutral zone) will facilitate the plundering of defenceless towns and communities. This 110 doubt is the stock German argument—it has been cited in a number of official communications from Berlin —and if itwere sound obviously H would carry great weight. The Allies certainly axe not entitled, even fr>» the sake nf enforcing the-Peace Treaty. _ to deprive peaceful and law-abiding German neople of proW.ion atrainst lawless insurgents. There is no Kuewstion. however, except in nreiudiced German Utterances that France has at any stage contemplated such an outrageous attitude. Assuming that communities in the neutral zone are so menaced as to need military protection it was presumably open to Germany to arrive at an understanding with the Allies under which this protection could have been afforded. The case was essentially one for a special arrangement and special The German Government chose instead to act as if its obligations under Hie Peace Treaty were non-existent. In the circumstances full assent must be given to the verdict of the London Time* that France has taken the only proper course. ••

The opinion is expressed in a message, from Paris to-day that the Germans will evacuate the neutral 7,one in a few days, and that a French withdrawal will follow, "thus closing an incident which will have served the purpose of proving conclusively to the Germans that the terms of the. Treaty must be observed." These optimistic expectations can be realised tn full only if the French are. right in assuming that the German advance into the neutral zone is simply an item in the tricky policy of Treaty evasion the German Government undoubtedly has pursued. Although it is fairly plain that in this matter as in others the German Government has acted with bad failh, if. may appear that a satisfactory adjustment of affairs in the neutral zone involves emergency arrangements for effectively policing threatened districts. This ought not to present insuperable difficulties. If the conditions to be faced are those of German civil war on a serious

scalo a graver problem is raised, but in any case if the Treaty is to he upheld the German Government for the time being cannot be allowed to flagrantly violate its obligations as it did in moving troops in the Ruhr district. It is rather early to assume that events in the neutral zone will move rapidly to a smooth settlement, but the only reasonable conclusion as matters stand seems to be that the action promptly taken by France was in every way justified and entitles her to the gratitude of her allies. This opinion may be held without qualification even if it is regarded as likely that the Germans based their latest violation of the Peace Treaty upon a genninely critical situation in the Ruhr district.