France The strikes in the French textile mills still paralyse
the chief manufacturing industry of Northern France, though a few workers have returned, and there is hope of peace soon. In Paris we regret that the Minister for War has announced that he will have to raise the Army Estimates by over 800,000,000 francs.
This is not what should have been expected. from M. Briand's policy, nor , from the utterances of M. Tardieu, but we fear that the French Prime Minister's control over this . spending department is not absolute. Nor do we think that the French people will refuse the. money if M. Maginot persuades them that it is necessary for security. There is, of course, a body of men in France which has faith in outlandish inventions like the League of Nations and even in eccentricities of M. Briand, such as the Kellogg Pact, but as yet it is as a cloud in the sky no bigger than a man's hand. Living cheek by jowl for generations with the old Germany, who has twice invaded France in the memory. of living man, has implanted fear so deeply that words and documents cannot uproot it in a moment or, a decade. Why else has France accepted the heavy burdens for the reorganization of her fortifications on her eastern frontier ? France will still pay for the comfort which she only finds in visible security against that fear of violence which still haunts her.
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