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A REVISION OF THE TREATY

CHAP.

Ally Debt, should be conditional on France 's accept-ance of a more pacific policy towards the rest of theworld than that to which, she herself appears to beinclined. I hope that France will abandon her opposi-tion to proposals for reduced military and navalestablishments. What a handicap her youth willsuffer if she maintains conscription whilst her neigh-bours, voluntarily or involuntarily, have abandonedit! Does she realise the impossibility of friendshipbetween Great Britain and any neighbouring Powerwhich embarks on a large programme of submarines ?I hope, too, that France will forget her dangerousambitions in Central Europe and will limit strictlythose in the Near East ; for both are based on rubbishyfoundations and will bring her no good. That she hasanything to fear from Germany in the future which wecan foresee, except what she may herself provoke, is adelusion. When Germany has recovered her strengthand pride, as in due time she will, many years mustpass before she again casts her eyes Westward.Germany's future now lies to the East , and in thatdirection her hopes and ambitions, when they revive,will certainly turn.

France has an opportunity now of consolidating hernational position into one of the stablest, safest,richest on the face of the earth ; self-contained ; well-but not over-populated ; the heir of a peculiar andsplendid civilisation. Neither whining about devas-tated districts, which are easily repaired, nor boasting