The Prime Minister, in his anxiously expected state- ment of
policy in the House of Commons on Thursday, July 12th, recalled the circumstances attending the occupation of the Ruhr, contrary to the wishes of the British Government. If the sole object of France and Belgium were, as they said, to secure the payment of reparations, we differed from them in method rather than in aim. But the Allies were, in fact, obtaining less reparation than before, and " the indefinite continuation of this state of affairs was fraught with great peril." Germany was moving fast to economic chaos ; other countries, too, were paying the price—we ourselves, in particular, by reason of our depressed trade and wide- spread unemployment. The time had come to define the attitude of the leading Allies, to end " the indefinite occupation by one country of the territory of another in time of peace " and to put the debtor in a position to pay his debts. The Government proposed to draft a reply to the German Note of June 7th, and hoped that the Allies would come to an agreement as to the terms of that reply. The Italian Government, Mr. Baldwin said, shared his views on the matter. " So far as united action is possible," lie added, " we shall continue to pursue it." * * *
