FRENCH SECURITY AND FREE TRADE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, Would it not be possible for this country to make the offer of Security for France on one condition—Free Trade ? We are now taking the first steps on the road which many thinking people consider will lead us towards Protection, and there are few, even amongst Protectionists, who will deny that duty on goods coming into the country will lead to higher prices. Their principal reason for desiring Protection is that it will reduce unemployment. If it does not do so the life of the present Government will be shorter than most of us consider desirable and probable, and the next experiment in Government will be full-fledged Socialism and all its attendant horrors. What would the offer of Security to France mean ? It would include an absolute promise of immediate military assistance in the case of attack on her territory. The very promise of this aid would in all certainty prevent any attack, and would alter the mentality of the French within a year or two, which we must hope would in turn alter that of the Germans. The hatred between these two nations must be banished before there can be real peace and security in Europe and nothing can do this so quickly and effectually as the certainty that war will not pay. Is the offer worth making
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