ENTENTE CORDIALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1943, Page 4

ENTENTE CORDIALS

PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. NEED OF GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER. The future of the Entente Cordiale cannot be based solely on the reciprocal interests of France and this country, says M. Jacques Mon tai, in "France,” the French daily newspaper published in London. M. Montal makes this statement in criticising an article by Mr Harold Nicholson, who, he says, “thinks their friendship will be strong because the security of the one is complementary to the security of the other.” In such a conception, says the French writer, there would be only difficulties. The teal Entente Cordiale, he says, should be based on the better knowledge of each other on the part of the common people. “In order to render the Franco-Bri-tish entente fruitful,” says M. Montal, “the initiative of statesmen will not suffice. Means must be found for the two peoples to get to know one another. Between intellectuals, as Mr Nicholson has rightly said, union already exists. . . . The principal effort must be made with the masses. They alone can render war impossible. But the most humble of our two peoples do not know each other. In general, it is the British Conservatives who know and love France. It was, before the advent of fascism, the aristocracy which in France was the most pro-British, sometimes, it was said, to the extreme. Those whose material interests were opposed reached understanding and affection for one another. “What would not be the strength of our future union if the popular masses, which nothing separates, could learn to know each other! Founded on human sympathy, their union would be indestructible.” In France today, M. Montal goes on to point out, the public masses turn towards Britain as their hope of liberation. It is by the contact of peoples, not by contact of the elite only or by interests of pure security that the new and more real Entente Cordiale will be built. How such contacts can be brought about will no doubt be one of the problems of the future. Perhaps it will be no longer, “All aboard the Skylark ■for a trip round the bay,” but “All aboard the big plane for a half day in Paris.”