This strange one-sided interpretation of what Freneh politicians still talk
of as a mutual pact is patently remote from what Germany had in view when she made her proposal. Only a. nation of rather self-centred logicians "could argue itself into the belief that the French require- ments are quite reasonable and that Germany ought do regard them as being so. We do not yet know what words Mr. Austen Chamberlain has used which haVe. encouraged the French to fancy .that the British nation could approve of . this oliesided.' interpretation Of mutuality. Probably some assurance given by the Foreign Office in the course of the negotiations has been read in Paris as meaning a good deal more than it was intended to mean. All that is-possible at present is to wait fOr an explanation of the mystery "and to hope that the better rumours about the willingness of France to agree with Great Britain are true.
