FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN
INCIDENTS at sea and in the air occurring in endless succession have for some time had a major place in the war news ; the communiques concerning military operations on the Western Front have been laconic. But the six days' visit of the King to France has served to remind us of the magnitude of the French effort and the steady accumulation of large British forces on French soil in preparation for the coming clash. The King has seen Lord Gort and General Gamelin and many officers and men of the Armies and the Air Force. He has seen British troops in the defensive positions which they are busily preparing though they are not yet in action. With the French he has visited the amazing fortifications of the Maginot Line manned by specialist troops. And his visit to one part of the front based on the Maginot Line has disclosed the fact that a portion of the British Expeditionary Force has now joined the French in the fighting area, and is holding advanced posts opposite the enemy in a Rhineland sector.
It is now abundantly clear to our own people and to our Allies that we, like them, are committed to totali- tarian war in all its aspects, not less on land than at sea and in the air, and not less on French than on British territory. In this respect the last war is repeating itself. Gradually our Expeditionary Force is growing, as quickly as the men can be trained, and the already considerable army which we have on French soil is in process of developing into a colossal force such as we used there in the last war. Twenty years ago there were some prophets who said " Never again " ; and between then and now there has been expert military opinion which held that the proper role of this country was to use its war potential in the intensive manufacture of mechanism, in keeping the seas open, in enforcing an economic blockade, in the utmost use of the sea and air arms, but with a severely limited use of man-power on expeditionary forces. There was a school of thought which considered that the despatch of millions of men to the Continent would not be to use our war potential most effectively and economically.
But that view has been abandoned. Since Lord Baldwin laid it down that the British military frontier was on the Rhine it has become clear that the French and British must share and share alike in all the enter- prises of the war. It has happened in this war, as it did not in the last, that in the first three months the heaviest losses of life have been incurred by the British, through submarine action, through mines and in air-battles off the coast. But it is probable that the hardest struggle will not always be at sea ; the delay in land operations has as its result that when the fighting assumes a more violent form the British armies will be in a position to take a larger share. That is as it should be. In estimating our own great effort it is proper that we should never for a moment forget the immense effort which the French are making. Already they have with the colours some three and a half million men who in civilian life have been the backbone of the industry and agriculture of their country. They have more trained men for the first period of the war, but later we shall have streams of reinforcements not only from Britain but all the Empire. The French, like ourselves, have the task of expanding their war industries, increasing the ceaseless output of aeroplanes, guns and shells, and maintaining the essential services of food supply and transport. For them, as for us, the struggle is one in which all the efforts of the nation are war efforts. Together we are fighting with men, with munitions, with manufacturing power, with land, sea and air trans- port, with imports and exports, with money, and last but not least, with morale. And this morale demands not only unity within each country, but unity of the two countries—mutual trust, co-operation, and a sense of equality of sacrifice.
That unity has taken tangible form in the financial agreement which Sir John Simon announced last Tuesday. The exchange rate is to be fixed for the duration of the War. Each country will be able to cover its requirements for the currency of the other without having to find gold. Neither country will impose fresh protective restrictions on imports from the other or raise a foreign loan except in agreement or jointly. An earlier understanding had already put an end to competitive buying in foreign markets. Never before have two sovereign countries bound themselves so closely together in the joint management of currency and finance. M. Reynaud justly claims that this un- precedented agreement, showing a complete unity of purpose, is dictated in the spirit which has already pro- duced the single military command.
Nor must it be overlooked that the Trades Union Congress also are in touch with their opposite numbers across the Channel. Organised Labour in both countries is alive to the fact that the industrial army is as necessary in providing the sinews of war as the soldiers are in using them. There were moments in the last war when disputes with the British trades unions became a serious menace. Those possibilities have been foreseen and forestalled, but the labour front will be doubly strengthened if the British and the French labour move- ment together feels that it is receiving a fair deal and is called upon for equal sacrifice.
In the last war there were occasions when there were differences between the politicians of the two countries and differences between the soldiers ; and, it must be added, differences between the politicians and the soldiers. There are no signs of any such disharmony today, and on all sides there is eagerness to avoid it. General Gamelin at the start stands in supreme com- mand of all the Allied armies in France, and the arrange- ments are such that some British units are under a French commanding officer and some French units under a British. But this good understanding which has been cultivated throughout among the responsible authorities on both sides is not all. The two nations have refused to be taken in by German propaganda which has endeavoured to sow differences. The grim jest that the British were willing to fight to the last Frenchman has been accepted in France for what it is worth. Her people have not forgotten the million men of our forces who died in the last war. Without doubt there will be ceaseless efforts on the part of the enemy to undermine the friendship and co-operation of the Allies ; they will make the most of differences of temperament and possibilities of prejudice. On our side too much cannot be done to cultivate between our- selves and the French still more understanding and the conviction that their and our interests are identical.
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