MR LLOYD GEORGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1923, Page 3

MR LLOYD GEORGE.

THE INTERNATIONAL POSITION

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION

The following and all oi Mr Lloyd George’s articles, are copyright by United Press in America and all countries, copyright in Australasia by the Australian Press, Copyright, in Britain Ov the Daily Chronicle. * (Reproduction in full or part prohibited).

(Deceived this day at 3 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 1!

Hon Lloyd George writes" What a muddle it all is. Franco and Germany are both anxious to settle, but too proud to say so. Belgium is sorry she ever entered Ruhr but cannot get out of it. Every time she tries to get awav, France pulls her back roughl.i by the tail of her coat, So she has to do sentrv at Essen whilst her friend is leading a wild life at home. Italy has forgotten she ever sanctioned the occupation, and her moral indignation i> mounting rapidly, although it has not vet risen to a height which is visible across the Alps. Britain is growing futile notes of dissatisfaction with everybody, France and Germany alike A confusion of tongues is deafening and paralyzing. No one is quite happy except the Spirit ol Mischief, who is holding his sides with laughter, lie never had such a time, not since the Tower of Babel, and this time it may end in a second deluge. The horror of the great war seems in have unhinged the European mind. Blood pressure is still very high, and excitement over Ruhr does not seem to improve it. When the diligent historian, a generation lienee, reads some of the articles written and speeches delivered, lie will recognise the ravings ot a continent, whoso menial equilibrium had been ii|>set by a great shock. The real issue involved in all this struggle is comparatively simple. Mow much can Germany pay, and how can she pay? America. Britain, Italy and Gernianq are all agreed that the only way to settle the question is to appoint competent experts to report upon it. 'Hie Rope has also blessed this obvious .suggestion. France, on the oentrni", savs it is a question to he determined by guns and generals, both equally well fitted for that task. Germany must present an account to the Mitrailleuse and argue her ease before a “seventyfive.”

Although f have no fear in recalling my predictions in previous articles, I hesitate to hazard a fresh forecast, hut one ninv review the possibility and note the drift of the whirling currents in assessing the chances. You must begin with some knowledge of the man who will decide the event. M. Poincare is a man of undoubted ability and patriotism, but lie is also a man who lives in a. world ot prejudices" so dense, that they obscure the* taels. In his last note lie says the conferences and ultimatums of the past lour years ha\e got nothing out of Germany. What are the facts? During three and a halt years preceding the Ruhr invasion, Germany paid to the Allies in cash and kind ten milliard gold marks, a considerable effort for a country just emerged from an exhausting war and whose foreign trade was down seventy per cent. You niiglu imagine that a mail who takes the grave step of ordering armies 1.0 invade a neighbours territories would have taken Lit 1 trouble to ascertain the elementary lads of the ease. Will Hie next three and a-hall’ years bring anything approximating that amount, ll is a safe statemollt to make that one in charge of the French movement anticipated resistance, resistance approaching in xtuhbornoss that which had been encountered. Frankly, t h<- press both in France and here, foietold Ou I 'h < - coilapM' of Germany's opposition. All the French plans were based on that assumption. Soldiers edimalo resistam- in terms of mat! rial 'ml 'rained men ami dalesmen too often build their hopes on the same shallow foundations. They never allow for the indomitable reserve of the human heart. which do mil figure in Army llstlf statement annuals. Ihe resistance o Paris in 1 870 was as great a surprise to Bismarck as the stubbornness ol ID,hr miners is to M. I’oineare to-day. There were few men in England "ho thought the Boer peasants could continue resistance Ibr three months alter our armies readied South Alihti. I u Northern States of America never conleinplaled the possibility of n years’ struggle with Hie blockaded, starved and overwhelmed confederacy. The war of 1914-10 was lettered with miscalculations attributable to a blind refusal of rulers and Mieir advisers to

recognise the human element as a metor in the reckoning. The Ruhr lrag- „. odv is not the first, nor will it he the last to he initiated by a facile memo,- ( , Simla framed by general stalls and r) civilian I'unctionaries, drawing mspira- s . lion from pigeon holes. Whatever be- (l comes of this episode, it is alreat > dear that the estimates have teen s hopelessly falsified. There are already ~ as nmnv Erciichmen ill Ruhr as An- v triloon commanded at Waterloo. As to coal, they have sent across the iron- ( , tier in six months about equal to one „ months delivery by Oermany during ,• the period of default, which provoked ti-c invasion. Desperate aflairs have ( been made to satisfy French and for- t ci.o, opinion that the resistance gradu- , alk breaking down. Rubbish has, been shovelled into waggons m order to swell the quota of coal seized., Everywhere, even in the streets .Wondour Trorquer. in charge oi the transport arrangements breezily challenges , th t . critics to look at tin* mounting j pvrninitio ot his dust carl collections, , and rejoice with him in Die triumphs , of Ere licit organisations. Alas l to < Trocquer’s Celtic lire eve, when fed by , ,la. sweeping of the Ruhr, cannot keep , onin"- the Lorraine blast lurnaces, so ; There is disappointment and discontent among the forgemastors of France. All the. same, there must he a. limit to human endure m e. TCiilu-r I'™""' or Germany must give way in the end. Answering these questions, one must , rememher that France’s honor is involved in the success. Every !■ rene.imnn knows her prestige will ho damaged if she failed. That is why statesmen who disapprove of the invasion, support the Government to bring it to a successful end, and here L ranee has a legitimate complaint against her AHl e s. It is all very well tor Italy to counsel wisdom. .Mussolini was piesmt at He hush conference which sanctioned the invasion. He fixed the price of assent in coal tonnage. That price has been regularly paid. Belgium is getting seared at the swelling magnitude of the venture, hut she had committed her own honour as well as that of France to carrying it through. I am sorry to think Britain is not Tree of some responsibility in tho mailer. D is true her representatives disapproved of the enterprise, hut not on ihc grounds of right or justice. On H' contrary, while expressing grave doubts * as to ultimate success, they wished ‘ France’s Government well in the enterprise as otic of her Allies in a position ' with a clear conscience io urge France ‘ to haul down the flag, lucre is only ! one course which could he urged on France consistent, with French honour. That is, the reference of the dispute to the League of Nations. That, would he an enforcement of the Treaty ot Versailles. That suggestion the Bril' tisli Government lias refused to press t- on France. Tt may he assumed that France will insist at nil costs on on-

forcing her will. Incidents inseparable from a foreign occupation have exasperated German opinion, and reached the depths of hatred never stirred even by the great war. The deportation of fifteen thousand Germans from their homes in the Ruhr, repressions, shootings, the myriad inxolentces of an unchallengeable force and hatred are hail negotiators. There is a movement to create a Rhineland republic fostered by French agencies and financed by French subventions. If it is declared, Prussia will not he allowed to suppress it. We may therefore soon witness a Rhineland Republic whose glorious freedom and independence will he jealously guarded by coloured warriors of Setiegatnhia or Cochin China. If Germany dissolves, then the Rhineland and Ruhr will remain under French doininion. France would not secure the reparations due. She would enjoy security ami conjectures of an enormously enhanced power in the world, an old French dream, would he realised. Bismarck's work would he undone and Napoleon's restored and perpetuated. There i- an old Welsh saying, "It is easy to kindle a lire on an old hearthstone.” This idea of a 'Rhineland under French domination is the old hearthstone of Cliarlenagno. Mazariii sought to relight its flames : Napoleon kindled on it a blaze that scorched Europe, and Napoleon 111 had hopes of warming his hands at the glowing ember.-. Now the great victory of 1918 has once more set French ambitions to revive the lire on the old hearthstone. It is a bad lookout for Europe.