NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE week has been overshadowed by the dire per- sistence of France in her policy of coercion. The blow has fallen as we write on Thursday. The prepa- rations were complete, and the French troops have already crossed the frontier of the Ruhr—the guns and the tanks Fumbling along the road to Essen. We can see no hope that they will return without injury irre- parable to Europe. The French Government seem the dupes of terror. They fear the Germans so much that they dread what the rest of the world so ardently desires—the economic recovery of Germany. Panic is the most dangerous of counsellors. France in striving to escape from her fears will only increase her perils. The German people, ruined and distracted, will prove far more dangerous neighbours than a Germany pros- perous enough to pay.
