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Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1922, Page 2

Coxtixuixu his speech Mr Bonar Law, said :—I am a sincere friend of France. But, in a ease of this kind, if one does not talk frankly and say wluit he things it is better not to talk at all. Now that I am neither a member of a Government nor of an Opposition, what [ say hinds nobody hut myself. I do not believe that any British Government would not feel, that reasonable demands on Germany must be met. I was surprised, I admit, to find it stated that, according to the Treaty of Versailles, one of the Allies was entitled to take such action as entering the Ruhr alone. But if it is'true, just think wliat’follows. If one Ally is entitled to do something alone, another Ally is entitled to say, “I will have nothing to do with it.” Well, for England and Franco such a condition of J things would play directly into the j hands of our olej enemies—would lie ex- f aetlv what our old enemies want. A.' greater misfortune to France and England could not happen than wliat would develop from that. And it must not happen. We do not know—l dor.’ : if the Governments know until they have received the reports of the Re- . pnrntion Commission—how much Germany can pay. But 1 do know that there ought to be no difference of onin, ion that whatever they can pay they

must pay. There have always been between the host of friends differences of opniion. Tlie only way they can he got over is, as they were got over during the war, hy goodwill and good sense. 1 would say to the French friends that they may take it from mo that I am expressing the opinion of the whole British nation when 1 say that when these differences of opinion arise they are not due to indifference to tho French point of view, much less to any hostility. They are due to a real honest difference of opinion as to the best method of securing a result which we have in common. ,