The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1918. FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1918. FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP.

The foregathering of the presidents of two great republics sucii as France and America is an event that is entitled to more than passing comment. One of the three cardinal principles of republics is brotherhood, and America has exemplified this quality in a very marked manner. Sho did not, however, enter the war because France was in need of help, but that fact does not minimise the value of America's aid to the French republic at a time when it meant the salvation of the French nation and territory. President Wilson is not visiting France to receive the thanks of her people. He is there to assist in the framing of measures wliereon the future peace of the world can be founded, and that M. Poineare recognises thi3 is evident by his remarks in welcoming President Wilson. "We have now," he said, "to build up together a peace such as will prevent the reconstitntion of an organisation for conquest and oppression, a peace that will make amends for the miseries and sorrows of yesterday, and be a guarantee against the dangers of to-morrow." The French President could not have uttered such sentiments if AlsaceLorraine had still been in German hands, but thanks to the help of America and the Allies, France is at last rid of the German oppressor, her provinces re-annexed and her reason for conscription eliminated. For nearly half a century patriotic Frenchmen have lived and toiled to recover Al-sace-Lorraine, but all this time there has only been a truce between France and Germany, an<l it is quite natural that the realisation of the country's desire and determination, by the aid of the great- American republic, should create a feeling of the deepest gratitude for the brotherly help accorded in the hour of the most dire need. Now this great load of trouble has beer. lifted and the ■two presidents have met and exp.hnnged courtesies, it is quite eonceivable that though their 'oams fitsre identical so fax

breaking the power of Prussian militarism and terrorism was concerned, yet the motives which actuated each country were about as far apart as the poles. The common purpose which brought the citizens of these two republics together on the field of battle has cemented a friendship of long duration, and France will ever hold in high honor and esteem the sister republic which so materially helped to recover for the; french people the provinces which had been seized by Germany. President Wilson's'eighth point of America's war aim stipulated that all French territory should be freed, and the invaded portions restored; also that the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in Alsace-Lorraine "which had unsettled the peace of the world % nearly fifty, years," should be righted, "in order that peace shall be once more secure in the interests of all." When the cruel terms of an indemnity of four billion francs and the annexation of Al-sace-Lorraine were imposed on France at Bismarck's bidding, he was warned that in France, from old men down to children, all would learn to use arms, and that millions of soldiers would one day demand back what was takeu. That day arrived, but it was not the millions of France which succeeded in bringing about the restoration of these provinces to France. It was the millions of Britain, aided by those of France, with over a million Americans that turned the scale and brought the rapacious Teutons to their knees, and among those millions Were men from . the uttermost parts of the globe—New Zealanders and Australians. France owes a lasting debt of gratitude to the British Empire as well as to America. and she is hardly likely to forget the magnitude of the service rendered. Again and again have the leading German authorities, civil and military, loudly proclaimed that Alsace-Lorraine would never be given up. That was not the only vain-glorious boast which has proved to be futile. Britain as a factor was ridiculed by ' Bismarck and his more recent blatant imitators, while America's interference was not even dreamt of. To-day is the hour of triumph of the democracies, so that the presence of President Wilson in France to give the final coup de grace to Prussian militarism is an event of world wide importance as it inansrnrates a new era of deserted thrones of autocrats and the entrance into their rights of the people who have been oppressed by the swashbuckling tyrants who have been compelled to seek safety in flight. "Under such circumstances do the two presidents meet and it is a happv augury for the peace of the world.