In spite of the unreasoning hostility with which the . French
reply to the British memorandum on disarmament has been received in Germany, the door on further dis- cussion is by no means shut. But serious complications will be created if heed is given to the advocates of a Franco-British alliance as-the solution to today's prob- lems. Relations between ourselves and France are all they should be. Imperishable memories link the two countries together. They have the common bond of continued loyalty to democratic forms to unite them. But this country could not dream of letting itself be dragged at the heel of French policy. That would be an indefinite commitment beyond all toleration. To do France justice, she is harping on no • such string. She stands, as she has always stood, for the maintenance of a collective system centred at Geneva and charged not with the maintenance of frontiers as such but with the maintenance of peace. Nothing is emphasized more strongly in the French reply than France's complete agreement with the British stipulation that Germany shall return to Geneva. Commitments under the League of Nations Covenant are explicit. We know where we stand. Successive Governments of all colours in this country since 1920 have accepted the Covenant unques- tioningly. To meet France on that basis, which is precisely what France wants, is a totally different thing from an exclusive alliance ; and an alliance with a country already tied to allies of her own in the least stable zone of Europe would be an entanglement far more fertile in complicatimis and far less fruitful in security than normal co-operation within the framework of the League.
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