3 MARCH 1928, Page 3

* * * * France has been active in her

policy of trade agree- ments and treaties. Her Belgian Commercial Treaty is now signed. It brings in Luxembourg which, it will be remembered, left the German Zollverein after the War. She has completed the Saar Trade Agreement which is an appendage to the Franco-German Cnnimercial Treaty. The French have succeeded in keeping alive the economic union which they created between France and the Saar Basin. How far the League of Nations approves of this we do not know. On the other hand, she is- still at loggerheads with Switzerland over the `•` Free Zones " outside Geneva. When we remember the discussions of this question in 1919 that led to the insertion of Article 435 in the Treaty of Versailles, we cannot feel that France has behaved generously to her small neighbour. We fully agree with the Times which pointed out on Saturday that it was an excellent subject for arbitration or conciliation, and the instrument, the Franco-Swiss permanent Commission of Conciliation, is to hand. The latest Notes that have passed between Paris and Washington bring them no nearer as yet to renunciation of war.