THE FRENCH OCCUPATION.

The reports from the Ruhr district have until recently been so fragmentary that we are in no position to judge of the case as a whole. From French sources we learn, however, that the German troop movements constituted a distinct violation of the Treaty, of such a grave nature as to warrant the use of extreme measures in opposition.

With our safe remoteness and our incomplete knowledge of the facts it is not surprising that some of us should have branded this action as "French aggression." Dangers which seem very large across the Rhine are apt to appear very small across the Atlantic. We are still prone to regard the armistice, or at any rate the signing of the Treaty, as marking the end, rather than the beginning, of the world's troubles. Europe, with more reason, regards the dangers as still in existence. France has today a population just half the size of Germany's; and her industrial system is still largely in ruins. Hence it is only natural that she should look with more concern upon infractions of the Treaty, and, she argues, if Germany is willing to commit such infractions now, what will she be prepared to do ten years hence.

The utter breakdown of the demand for the war criminals made Germany think that she could act with utter impunity in whatever she chose; and this point of view was only natural. Such a demand ought never to have been made, or else, once made, it should have been backed up by united action. The faults of the Treaty of Versailles are, indeed, well exposed by the recent series of events. Most clearly of all is exposed our own fallacy in thinking that the Treaty could ever be self-executing. Without the League, the Treaty possesses no constructive or motive principle; and our own rejection of the League has done much, we fear, toward causing the present difficulties.

In occupying the threatened district, France has shown her ability to put a stop to German pretensions. Some such action was inevitable, if the Treaty was to be saved from the international scrap-heap. It is a pity, though, that France, already so heavily burdened, should be compelled to take up the task alone. It is doubtful whether this occupation would ever have been necessary, if from the beginning the Allied powers had been more sensible in making their demands, or more firmly united in backing them up. As it is, France has undertaken a responsibility which rests properly upon all the rest of the world, but which the rest of the world has seemed unable or unwilling to assume. For the present, France deserves our gratitude; but for the future we must see to it that we are ourselves united in a League which will prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents.