. It is notorious that the inopportune delay in publishing
the Report of the Inter-Allied Commission of Control on German disarmament is due to the French. France wants to make the date of her withdrawal from the Ruhr Valley and of the withdrawal of the British from Cologne dependent on getting a guarantee of military security. This means indefinite postponement of the withdrawal. If British advice had been listened to, a statement on German disarmament would have been published weeks ago and withdrawal would be now in progress if not ended. No one supposes that the Germans have fulfilled in all particulars the measures of disarma- ment prescribed for them, but this is a time for common sense if ever there was one. Germany as compared with the powerfully armed States around her is for all, practical purposes helpless. That is a plain enough. fact for us to found a policy on.
