FRANCE & REPARATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1923, Page 3

FRANCE & REPARATIONS

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. FIGHT TO A FINISH. COL. HEIM NOTON’S OPINION. FRANCE TO WIN THROUGH. {Koceivcd this day at 11.30 a .in A LONDON, February 10. Col. Bepiugton writing in the ‘‘Daily Telegraph” front Dnsseldorf. says though the military part of .the occupation is well done and suited require--I,ll*llts. tlie same eannc.t he said of the civil and technical side, if reckoning the success or failure of the French policy depends on the amount of coal and coke received. France and Belgium must admit the occupation has hitherto proved a dismal failure, but without denying the value of the Ruhr coke to Lorraine and Luxemburg. I do not think it matters very much to the French if the Ruhr coal supplies fail. France has its own supplies and can obtain more abroad. It is a question when the deprivation of Germany of the Ruhr coal will bring her to her knees. Germany is prepared for t'>e event. The railways have fifty . five days of reserves instead of nominally five, and ean use the Silesian, English and American supplies. All the same the loss of the Ruhr output is a terrible blow to Germany and must m tl, e cud bring her to terms or catastrophe. The longer this economic war fare proceeds the worse il will go for Germany. Whether German resistance lasts a month, a quarter or half a year none ean say, but the E reneh have taken np a position from which they cannot recede. If the French pressure remains steady, France will win through.