31 JANUARY 1925, Page 1

The article doeS not make any detailed proposal, but suggests

that a pact of security must be mutual ; that it must presuppose the evacuation of the Ruhr and the Northern Zone, and that it must be concluded between France and Germany themselves, without the mediation of any other Power. This offer may or may not have carried many German hopes with it, but it is certain that it- has not been received favourably or even seriously in France. Frenchmen think it next to impossible that any sincere scheme should come from the Luther Govern- Ment with its majority of Nationalist Ministers. When French people talk about -security they are very far from thinking only of the Western frontier. They attach vast importance to the maintenance of Poland, and when they observe that a proposal from Germany does not—as the Germania scheme does not—even mention Poland they are inclined-to tear it up without giving the matter another moment's thought.