All the words which Mr. Lloyd George addressed over the
heads of the House of Commons to France and Italy seem to us to have been prudent and necessary. The less help we get from America, the more careful we must be in supporting what may be called the Anglo-Saxon ideal of policy in foreign affairs. We must not, of course, for a moment forget or under- rate the haunting feeling which all Frenchmen have that only a conventional line serarates them from a traditional enemy who may revive and seek revenge. Indeed, none of us here is likely to forget that fact, for we recognize now that strategically our own frontier lies on the Continent. If we cannot, for geographical reasons, quite share all the vividness of French apprehensions, we do share them in a real sense, and mean to back her against all aggression. Nevertheless, it is natural for France in her foreign policy to demand a kind of over-insurance which might commit us, if we unreservedly acquiesced, to something less than the moderation towards other Powers which is our true policy.
Previous page
