LOSING A FRIEND

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1925, Page 4

LOSING A FRIEND

SOME PLAIN WRITING. "I i •on isfi to lose a friend, leu ! him moie-v" is an old and unfortunately apt. adage. in mail-' i uses you lose not h vonr ITicnd and your money. This has pro-. oJ t rue oi nations us v, ell as individuals, France is the lal-e.-:t example. among others. \\i- have I,timed f-'raue.- money, and lost a triend, and l-’rauce also assures us with acrimony and epithets, we will lose our ■money also. Evidently the more nionyou lend, the more bitterly your friend hates you. l-'raiu-e protests that she has already paid in blood, and tears anil glory; hut even these she has kept on her side of the water. France was presented hy the United States v, iLii Alsace-Lorraine, the great mineral price of Europ the hone id contention between Germany and France for mailv decades ; the treasure house which kept Europe an armed camp. Seized by Germany at the tune of the Fra in o-l’russian War. France made a cult uf the intention of taking it hack, am! therefore made a letish ol her ariiiv. Germany, intent on holding the spoils, also made a fetish of her army, am! I,y greater efficiency succeeded bettor than France. When site found, however, that the military burden was too great, she started a war to end it. The United States came in too late, ft was not our tight; we laid no claim to Alsace-Lorraine or to the rest ot tlie spoils of war. We were prodigal of men and money alter we went in; and l-'rame is here to tell Die tale, which otherwise would not he. Likewise, France borrowed money lor the war for and many other purposes —borrowed it from our government and our hankers. Both types of loan came ultimately from our private citizens. But the idea, of repayment is repulsive. Some years ago we quoted a noble sentiment of a Freiv-h statesman:

We shall never cease saying that we owe you." Even this magnanimity has now disappeared.

Senator Borah hits the nail on the head when lie asks the French l<>

state outright, cutting out the oratory, whether they do not mean repudiation. If they do, lie says, well and good. There is nobody to stop them. Certainly the United States will never get So heated up over tlie question of getting its money hack, as the French public is over the idea of giving it hack. Repudiation being amiably recognized. it would he well henceforward to adopt the insects slogan, "Wo ants never borrow, we ants never lend.” AVe loaned money to Russia, and she plots tin- overthrow ol our Government. Our citizens invested much money in Germany, and it went down a sink hole of governmental dishonesty. Likewise our citizens have already lost much money to France through tlie depreciation of tlie franc and a shrinkage in value of her internal bonds. France’s internal policy has been to borrow rather than tax to tlie limit; ami this has kept down her franc; and robbed foreign and domestic investors in her internal bonds. The isolation polity for America so often condemned seems not so bad when we come into actual contact with certain phases of European mentality. Alining and Engineering Journal, New York.