The Hokitika Guardian Thursday, July 20th., 1922. ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian Thursday, July 20th., 1922. ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS.

An important address was given on the subject pf Anglo-French relations By the Hon, Boimr Law at a gathering in London at tlie end of May, in the course 0! which hp spjd it would b? n

tragedy almost unthinkable, if, after all we have gone through together, there should-be any widening in our friendship or any slackening in the entente which builds us together. It would ho a great misfortune to this country, a disaster to Franco, and a standing menace for the future peace of the world. Unthinkable things have happened and if we are to preserve it, there must be on both sides of the Channel, not only a sympathy, but an understanding on the part of one nation of what the thoughts, the feelings and the aspirations of the other nation are. So far as T can judge—by the only material which gives us opportunities for judging, by the fPress of itxitli countries —there is some misunderstanding, and, if mv French* friends will permit me to say so. I think the misunderstanding in France of the conditions in Britain are greater thatl the misunderstanding here of_ things in Prance. Last year for six months T lived in France. Every day I read French newspapers, much more frequently than T read English and I was amazed to see'how little comprehension there was of conditions ill this country. Day after day— Englishmen who don’t read French papers will hardly credit it I read that we here had done very well out of the war. What have w,. got out of the war ? In one sense in the highest sense, wo got a great deal out of the war. I hope it is not national prejudice, hut it is my belief that, never in the long history of this country, have we ever acted h more glorious or a more unselfish part than we played during the war. Hut what have we got out of the war in the material sense? ' A load of taxation far heavier ihaii is Ixirne by :

other nation. Anyone with an income of £5,000 a year gives much more than one-third to the State, with a higher proportion as you rise in the scale. It is not merely something that the man who pays taxes grumbles at. Tt is a permanent clog, which will remain for generations, on the wheels of industry of this country. It is really a burden of which the unemployed to-day are an example, and which shows wliat the war has cost and will cost us. II my French friends will permit me to continue, £ was amazed at this. We were told what an immense acquisition of territory we got out of tlie war. Well we got sonic. We have Palestine and Mesopotamia. The French have Syria, and if anyone else would take the responsibility I think both nations would he richer ami stronger without them. But it is the colonies we have acquired which are regarded “s our great asset. We have had a great .accession of territoiy, but it is forgotten —and I say this in no spirit of unfriendliness to France—that it is not We alone who have got these acquisitions. The territory of the French Empire ill Africa has increased by more than half a million square miles, and time alone can tell which territory will prove the more valuabe in the future. But when you throw Alsiice-Lnrnille into the scale there is no question that it is pur French Allies and not we Who have got the greatest advantage from the war. Every day 1 read that, we are menaced l:,v French militarism. I don’t believe it. (Cheers). The French, it is said, love glory, but before the war there were many whose imaginations were touched by the glamour and glory of war. We know better now, an I 1 will never .believe that a people which so recently lias lost more than 1,250.000 if the host of her population and whose halt and maimed are going about tlie country, have any desire so •strong as » desire for peace. It is not I militarism; it is fear. And can we wonder at it? In the lifetime of men j now living their country has been overrun and devastated twice hy the -nine people. Is it surprising that the I French people after all they have j endured, when they look across the border and see a virile race with a j population twice as great as their own I should ask themselves; Has all ou r stiff- ! ering and victory been in vain? Are \ our children to face the calamities j which twice have overrun our land That is the explanation of French feeling and who does not sympathise with j as well as understand it?