BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2287, 9 June 1921, Page 2

BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

THE substitution ol‘ a detinite nllianee between Fro nee and Britain for the present entente has a strong advocate in the London Morning Post. The views of that paper on the subject were recently expressed in a leader as follows: —‘‘A certain section of English public opinion is inclined to fight shy of any closer understanding with France on the ground'that our ally has become bitten with a chauvinistic mania, and that this country ought therefore ,to keep clear of the adventures to which such an association might commit her. As a matter of fact, we do not see any reasonable grounds for such an accusation against a country which more than any other belligerent knows how costly even a victorious war can be. . . No Frenchman can turn to the north

or the east without a shudder, and the sight of those desolate fields and innumerable graves nujst colour his language and embitter his thoughts. Englishmen, therefore, ought not to decry or abuse the alarum bell which is ringing through France, but rather ought to consider the ways and means which might lead to the silencing of its solemn and foreboding call. And we cannot imagine any better method than the concluding of an alliance with the country which in saving European j- civilisation also helped to ward off the felon blow struck at the heart of the British Empire. There are powerful reasons why in our own interests we ought to conclude such an alliance, but for the moment we would draw attention to the buttress it would prove in consolidating the peace of Europe, it would remove in France that fear which sometimes inspires hazardous policy; it would ! attract into its orbit in time not only Belgium, but Italy; and it would convince Washington that amid the welter and turmoil of modern Europe there was one union of hearts and one comradeship of arms i which might bring order out of I chaos. Such an alliance is no leap i in the dark, no sudden impulse born |of the despairs of the moment. On j the contrary it was the main pillar of the peace which was framed by the present Prime Minister. The political confusion across the Atlantic temporarily obscured it, but now that the waters are subsiding 1 and the prospects are becoming brighter it is again showing itself to ! reasonable men as a sure guarantee for the peace, not only of Europe, but of the world.”