THE FOREIGN POLICY OF FRANCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12631, 19 October 1905, Page 4

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF FRANCE.

M. Jules Delafosse, who has been a memljer of th© French Chamber of Deputies for nearly 30 years, and is a journalist of distinction, contributes to the " National Review " an article upon the foreign policy of France, a subject which he has made peculiarly his own. He traces it from 1870 downwards; exposes the tortuous tactics of the German Kaiser, and points out the utter failure of his great scheme for grouping Germain . France and Russia in a single ailiar'ce against England—-a dream which collapsed when the Anglo-French entente cordiale was arrived at, and when Italy virtually drew back from tho Triple Alliance. The aspirations of! the Kaiser to rule over Central Europe fro-m the North Sea to the Adriatic, and from the Baltic to the Aegean, it is argued by M. Delafoase, " would he at onoe a menace and a peril to every other civilised State, and would involve the annihilation of France," Therefore the latter is of necessity the antagonist of pan-Gernianism, and requires the sup^ port of other nations. Hence the Russian alliance, and hence also the AngloFrench, agreement, and this has gained in public opinion in France all the ground which the dream of a German entente has lost; and should, the writer .of the article contends, be changed into an express and positive alliance, as the surest guarantee of peace. What is .now greatly to be desired, he adds, is an Anglo-French-Russian alliance, -" which,- in all probability, Italy, and possibly the United, States, might b« willing to join, thus securing for them the most powerful military and naval forces ever set in motion for a common purpose." " French diplomacy," M. Delafosse goes on to remark, " has no more pressing obligation than the real.isarbipn of such a scheme. Circumstances demand that we pursue a far sighted policy, in order to guard against threatening developments, which would cause a general European convulsion and give birth to new forces."