7 JULY 1923, Page 9

While " touch" is not lost there is hope, and

it is obvious that at the moment newspaper controversy had best be avoided. We can trust our Government to do what is right. They know how injurious a break with France would be and that therefore they must strive with all their might to prevent it. But they also know that there are other things which would be still more injurious. If we are, unhappily, forced to choose between the friendship of France and the safety and well-being of ourselves and of the whole world—France included— we must choose safety. If France has become blinded by a heady mixture of pride, panic and ambition, and is bent upon her own ruin, we cannot follow her on punctilio.