ENTENTE CORDIALE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 8

ENTENTE CORDIALE

When Their Majesties the King and Queen visited Paris in July of last year, clouds were gathering over Eastern Europe, The Sudeten Germans, backed by Berlin, had made the first moves in the campaign that was to reach its climax at Munich, and doubt as to the future was disturbing the calm of every capital. In particular was there uncertainty, not unmixed with cynicism, as to the real strength of Anglo-French relations, not so much in diplomacy, but among the peoples of the two great democracies. Was there, it was asked, a true cordiality—a deeper, safer understanding and sympathy than could be engendered or assessed by the polite formalities of diplomatic exchanges? Did the understanding between the two Governments typify the background of national feelings? The Royal days in France supplied the answer to these questions, and set doubt at rest. From the moment the King and Queen, set foot on the soil of the Republic enthusiasm ran high and unbounded, and the spirit of the entente cordiale lived anew. As the King said in reply to President Lebrun’s toast at the great Elysee banquet: “In spite of the strip of sea which separates us, our two countries have seen their destinies inevitably drawn together with the passage of the centuries; and it would now be impossible to recall a period in which our relations were more intimate.” Those were significant as well as true words, and two months later the European crisis caused the two nations to draw still closer together, united in their endeavours for peace but also with the common purpose of guarding democratic security. Whether or not the Anglo-French policy of September last was the wisest that could have been adopted still remains to be seen, but events have already shown that Britain chose the path of honour and sanity by reaffirming her democratic friendships and making these friendships the basis of her efforts to avoid war and to establish European goodwill on a better and more lasting basis. So far her efforts have come to nought. Nazi ambition has rent Eastern Europe, sowing the seed of bitterness, and there is no saying even yet that it is satisfied. Italian Fascism stands lost in admiration of Germany’s swashbuckling, and eager in the Mediterranean to emulate her methods. But Britain and France are shoulder to shoulder, and already the lack of confidence in each nation’s preparedness, or capacity to prepare, which could be discerned six months ago, has disappeared, and been replaced by alert co-operation in problems of Western European defence.. It is in this atmosphere of continued and heightened uncertainty as to the future in Europe, but greatly increased reliance on the value of the Anglo-French understanding, that M. Lebrun and his wife have paid a return visit to England. The welcome accorded them has been less vivacious, perhaps, than on the Royal occasion in Pans, but the cabled descriptions of it leave no. doubt that in. their own sober, albeit genuine, fashion London’s millions have paid trances chief citizen the compliment of a warmhearted reciprocal greeting. “London’s acclamations today responded Paris’s cheers in July ; the harmony between the two capitals symbolizes the friendship of two Empires whose territories adjoin at many points, and whose moral frontiers blend,” said the President in reply to the King’s, welcome, and in expression of the feelings inspired by a day of biilhant pageantrv. Once again, at a critical time in the affairs of Europe, a gesture of Anglo-French solidarity has been made, aud a fiesh seal placed on the enduring entente.