The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Limes. SATURDAY, SEPT, 3rd 1927. THE LEAD OF NATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Limes. SATURDAY, SEPT, 3rd 1927. THE LEAD OF NATIONS.

Tin- Franco-German spirit is the doliiitut 1 ing lactor as to the work oi the League at the present juncture. Just new there is the question of reducing the strength of allied forces in Gornniny, and France, still full of distrust is not bent, on taking set ious risks. M. Fiiand has applauded the new spirit displayed by Germany in regard tu the L iurno Treaty, and uses that as a stepping stone to declare that existing frontiers shall he something sacred, ami remain inviolate. This statement, the cable indicates is not altogether pidlatnble to Germany, which no doubt has hopes however remote at present of some day retrieving the national situation. France was through a similar experience in former times, and came to see her hones realised with the return of Alsace and Lorraine. Germany’s fortunes in that respect France would now bar forever, and s:> we so" the Anglo-French entente cordiale strengthened at every opportunity. All the same as one paper remarks, it is to be honed that the decision of the Powers to reduce the forces in occupation of the Rhineland hv 10.000 men will do something to dear the air in that part of Europe. For the continued maintenance there of a standing garrison which still numbers 00.000 men i.s a permanent humiliation to the Germans, and constitutes a grievance which they constantly exploit. Apparently when Germany consented to enter the League of Nations she assumed that the Allies would he prepared to make substantial concessions to her. ami even to modify the Treaty on her behalf. The Germans believe, or at least affect to believe, that Franco has no longer any rcasonnb'o ground for taking precautions against future aggression, and they maintain that the Locarno Agreement safeguards France adequately without any further necessity for keeping a French “Watch hv the Rhine.” This view is reported in he held also bv Viscount Cecil, in opposition to the views of his crdlea--Kucs. No doubt France’s decision to reduce her forces by 8(!C0 men—n course which is said to be approved by Sir Austen Chamberlain—will have some affect in softening these international aspersites. But so long ns there are any foreign troops left in the Rhineland the Germans will continue to protest. But ultimately, ns a mr'.

ter of course, the foreign troops must he withdrawn, and France is already gravely apprehensive about what may happen then. Of course, if Germany could he depended upon to keen the peace for ever there would be no need for France to insist on adequate protection for her frontiers. But there can he no guarantee of indefinite duration, and oven to-day the tone that the Germans generally adopt in discussing their position under the Treaty is hardly calculated to lull all anxiety for the future. The German appeal to “the Locarno spirit” is a commonplace and obvious trick, for the really important question is the .spirit in which Germany regards the nations around her. Quite apart from the possible nationalist or militarist reaction which threatens from time to time, the average German Republican to-day does not seem to he essentially different from the pre-war German in hi.s belief in hi.s own impeccability and his moral superiority over hi.s neighbours. The dispute over the invasion of Belgium that has arisen 'during the past few days at the sittings of the International Parliamentary Union illustrates this characteristic German weakness. Most people will he inclined to agree with M. de Jouvenal’s terse summary of the case—in German eyes, Locarno is sufficient as a proof of goodwill; to France, something is needful in the way of a material guarantee.