FRANCE'S DETERMINATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1917, Page 6

FRANCE'S DETERMINATION.

NEW PREMIER'S SPEECH. London, Sept. 17. Reuter's correspondent at 'Paris states that in the Chamber of Deputies M. Painleve. the new Premier, announced the Government policy. He declared that the Government would give all attention to the assembling of all the forces of the nation for the supreme phase of the war. He emphasised that the nearer the end to the war came the more essential to victory would be the moral resistance of the nation against which the enemy, who was unable to conquer 011 the battlefield, was about to redouble his efforts. The Government must redouble its vigilance against these insidiiras plans. Whoever made himself an accomplice of the enemy must suffer the full rigor of the law. NO WEAKNESS WILL TURN US.

No enemy manoeuvres, no individual weaknesses, could turn France from her i-termination. France pursued this war to defend her own and the world's liberty and independence. He>. claims were independent of the issue 9 of battles. She proclaimed them solemnly in 1871, when she was beaten. She proclaimed them to-day, when the aggressor was feeling the weight of her arms. THE PEACE TO COME. The disanneaation by Germany of .Alsace and Lorraine must be her reparation for the damage and ruin wrought by her, and earnest of a peace which should not be a peace of constraint no» violence, containing in itself the germ of future wars, but a just peace, in which no peoples, strong or weak, should be oppressed—a peace in which effective guarantees must protect the society of nations against all aggression on the part of one among them. These were the noble aims of France. As long as these were unattained France would continue to fight. (Cheers.) WILLING SACRIFICE. M. Painleve admitted that the coordination of nations in a war effort to secure, inter alia, increased production, the - imposition of indispensable restrictions, and the stoppage of speculation, and the rise in prices was a difficult matter. But private interests must yield to national, and the nation in its rise to the effort. Who would hesitate to impose on himself the necessary sacrifices, so light compared with the sufferings of soldiers?

THE ALLIES A SINGLE NATION. Such a co-ordination was no less necessary among the Allies, who should act as if they were a single nation and a single army fighting on a single front. All must equally contribute men, arms, and money. Only on this condition would their superior resources become crushing. Such a policy would allow France, without exhausting herself, to meet her economic and military needs. Since 1914 French blo®d has been shed in torrents. It was necessary, for the happy issue of the war, that she should maintain to the end the plenitude of •her vigour. ( The peric' following the conclusion of peace must be prepared for most carefully a long time ahead. France must (1) Restore the reconquered districts; (2) (Prepare an extensive programme of public works in order to multiply the industrial forces; (3) Regulate the return of soldiers to normal life in such a way as to avoid crises of unemployment; (4) Increase production and the national credit;

(5) Prepare for the transformation of munition factories to peace conditions; (6) Establish a fiscal system on just, bold, and well-considered taxes; and (7) Embody as a part of the social life reforms recently introduced between workmen and employers. Such, M. Painleve said, were some of the dominating ideas which -should guide their democracy. HOPES FOR RUSSIA. M. Painleve concluded with a review of the war theatres. , He hoped that the Republic of Russia would re-estab-lish union and discipline. On the Carso, the Sereth and the Cerna, as well as in Artois, during the past, month, great things had been accomplished, the results of which were more far-reaching than was 'at present apparent, as developments would show. As regards the French army, the morale was never higher. Without encroaching Upon the domain of the High Command, iParliamentary and Government- control would be exercised over the army. The intention was to govern in close union with Parliament, and they would not seek to conceal their responsibilities behind the cloak of optimism.