6 JANUARY 1923, Page 9

France, remember, in occupying large tracts of territory in order

to enforce payment, will not only be, as Mr. Boner Law well pointed out, destroying German credit, and thus the one hope of payment, but will be, in all probability, converting Germany into something like a giant Ireland. If Germany had a strong central government which could be coerced by threats, or even by the occupation of the capital, in a word, a government of the old non-democratic type, the French plan might have a chance of success. It has none in face of a weak government and a turbulent and hungry democracy. Poverty and despair have a strength of their own, which may make them invincible. The slave, the bankrupt, and the prisoner, are difficult people to frighten. They have so little to lose that you cannot frighten them.