LLOYD GEORGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 September 1923, Page 3

LLOYD GEORGE.

\/ FINAL ARTICLIC OK SKI!IKS. jLTJSTHALIAN ANO N . 7 .. CAItI.K ASSOCIAT/ON. 'Received this day at 8 n.m.) LONDON, Sent. 27. The following and all of 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 by the Gaily Chronicle. (Reproduction in lull or part prohibited). .Mr. Lloyd George write-: Corfu shows some improvement and Kigme is no worse. \\ hen a patient is desperately ill, it is something that the threatened complication is not. developing. If lhe ( ooncil of Ambassadors can ultimately hire Italy out of Corfu, they will have succeeded preventing the squalid hluvv from festering into a dangerous sore. Kiuno- is hack to the negotiation stage amd the teniperatllio is distinctly lower therein. Kranee and Germany are in process of slow strangulation, proceeding to the impending end. It is a great (eat of national endurance that Germany has held out so long. When the end comes, it will he by agreement, or l.e chaos. The prospects of an arrangement seem remote. The outlook for contusion is distinctlv promising. Herr Ktresemann will find it difficult to carry Germany with him on any terms of capitulation which will satisfy M. Poincare. It is M. Poincare’s repeated insistence upm France's intention to remain in possession of tin* most important industrial area of Germany for a whole generation which has prolonged the resistance. If, when the passive resistance gives way, the French Government proposes mag iiaiiimous terms, reconciliation and reparation may still march hand in htuid. hut M. Poincare must conciliate the two parties. First, i~ imperialist France, which only cares lor the dominion of lhe oilier section which is peasant and bourgeois France which wants its money hack for use in repairing the devastated areas. It is difficult to serve .Mars and Mammon, tun it has been done. there is a crowd ol witnesses among war profiteers in all lands who will testify to the possibility There may lie glory and power in annexing the Ruhr and Rhine to France, Imi there will la- no cash ill it for the French peasant, who prefers cash to the rumble of the distant drum.

lii the coining >Tnri-li elections, M. Poincare will want the suppoit. of the shrewd peasants and rentiers, hut AL Poincare must also think of the forgo masters and financiers who look with greedy eyes on the infinite possibilities of Ruhr coal. Ruhr furnaces and factories.

AL Poincare must satisfy the peasant by showing German gold flowing into French coffers, and lie must satisfy the iron and steel muster* hy giving them the prospect- of controlling the rich industries of Ruhr. There is no room for magnanimity in such a predictanicnt.

Reports that conic to me from travellers in Germany tell of the growing chaos. Robberies for clothes and food arc common, hungry prowlers iulest the night in many (ierman ciiies. The 'bewilderment of the mark is paralysing business. No one know* wlmt to order or what price to quote. The most agile brain finds it difficult to do business, when millions jump about 1 1 Ko grasshoppers on a. summer day. f.ifc in Berlin is like an ill-provided lunati- asylum. That nothing worse has si far happened is a triumph for German discipline and self restraint hilt firings are getting worse. Respect for authority is weaker and the winter is coming. Something might he done to improve the situation before winter, if terms can be arranged which will, not throw Germany into a revolutionary tumult. In France, the Bnldwin-Poiiicare communique is haded as complete virtorv for At. Pnim-aie. In Knglalld,

the Govet nmeutV uunc trumpeter proclaims Air Baldwin’s triumph. I think AT. Poincare persuaded Air Baldwin that, it is now too late for the British Government to take any separate action as the French Government is in is in possession of irrefutable proof that Germany is on the point of capitulation. At best this means that before l h l ist inn*. France. Belgium, and |talv will be receiving monthly deliveries of German coal, which were interrupted .by tie Ruhr invasion. A* for leparatiotis in cash instalments. Germany is less able to pay limit she was a year ago. so France will remain in Ruhr as she w ill not >eceive reparations. The future wifi depend upon German leadership. There may be internal disintegration and localised anarchy dating which Germany will he helpless and broken, but Germans arc not Russians they ate it highly educated and thoroughly trained people, with a deep sense of what is due to the State. 'l'fcev will poll thcmselvro together intimately and when they do, France and Belgium will he cleared out of Ruhr without any reparations.

The Russian alliance saved France from humiliation after 18,0. ami Russia is still alive. When she recovers from her wounds and fever. Russia will have much to sav about the Dontieis imposed upon her weakness. France can prevent Germany from rearming, hut she cannot prevent Germans from rearinii»<£ Russia. M. Poincare’S triumph may cast France mine than the brutalities of Bismarck co*t Germany.