* * * * When Germany originally proposed her Pact
she • obviously meant that while she would promise not to invade France, France would promise not to invade hOr. She spontaneously offered to regard the Eastern frontier • of France as permanent. As for her own Eastern frontier—which is a very unsatisfactory frontier—she said that she would not -attempt to alter it by fOirce but that she would reserve the right to try to alter it by negotiation. All this was, on the face of it, a reason- able offer, and Mr. Austen Chamberlain last Mardi expressed his approval of it. Since then France has been unceasingly trying to persuade Great Britain to tell Germany that the pledge of permanency must apply to the Eastern frontier of Germany as well as- to the Eastern frontier of France. " That," says France, " is the most peaceful and the surest way of redeeming • our pledges to Poland and ('zeeho-Slovakia. If there is to be any doubt aboat Germany's Eastern frontier we must,- of eourse, be free to march to the help of our Allies." To put the matter in a sentence, what France demands is that Germany should promise not to invade France but that France should reserve to herself the . right to march across Germany. She demands what may be called " a licence to invade.".
