THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1909. FRANCE AND GERMANY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9535, 6 July 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1909. FRANCE AND GERMANY.

A Minister of France, speaking recently in French Lorraine, recalls the Casablanca trouble, an international incident in which Germany roughly interfered in a "sphsre of influence" regarded by France as her own. The incident closed with M. Delcasse's resignation. The tallen Minister, it is understood, was sacrificed to propitiate Germany, and tne humiliation of France seemed to have been completed beyond argument. M. Barthou, however, row draws the veil aside. Certain con ditions were sought to be imposedupon France which implied national servitude. These "inadmissible claims" were rejectad. The" French Army was ready for any eventuality, and the whole country was steadily confronting "the enemy." This is a rather remarkable statement to be made by a responsible French statesman at a time when the international atmosphere is so heavily charged with perilous possibilities; and, as responsible statesmen do not make speeches of this kind without an object, the statements in question have great significance. Internal troubles in Morocco 3eern to be approaching another crisis, which may provoke further German interference: and M. Barthou's speech may be a warning to Germany that France will oppose "inadmissible claims" with her army. If this be not the explanation another may be sought in the meeting of the Kaiser and the Czar. It is clear enough that the present object of German diplomacy is to smash the friendship between Russia and France. There has never been a time since the Franco-Prussian war when a German attack on France would not ! have been highly perilous, owing to the possibility of Russian intervention. Hut, with Russia detached and placated, the effective domination of France would present no terrors to Germany's captains. International diplomacy has probably little to do with morality, at any time, but the revelations which have been made from time to time of the German methods show them to be singularly unscrupulous. France, in particular, has bitter reason to remember Bismarck's policy; and has every justification for believing that the detachment of Russia by Germany will be but a prelude to acts of aggression by that Power. It will be remembered that Sir George White recently prophesied that Germany would invade France, and claim as an indemnity the French Navy, which would be used by Germany in her grand international finale—the overthrow of Great Britain. Germany's plans, like her preparations for carrying them out, are prodigious; and M. Barthou's

speech sounds'very much as if those plans are again beginning to cirumscribe or menace French destinies. If the allusion to Germany as "the enemy" was not an incredible slip of the tongue, it amounts to absolute defiance of France's redoubtable rival.