IX WHAT IS FRANCE AFTER?
3. The Paris Conference
The third conference with M. Poincaré over reparations has ended, like its two predecessors, in a complete breakdown.
The first was held in August, the second in December, and the third fiasco has just been witnessed.
I congratulate Mr. Bonar Law on having the courage to face a double failure rather than agree to a course of policy which would in the end prove disappointing, and probably disastrous.
Agreement amongst allies is in itself a desirable objective for statesmen to aim at, but an accord to commit their respective countries to foolishness is worse than disagreement.
France and Britain must not quarrel, even if they cannot agree; but if French ministers persist in the Poincaré policy, the companionship of France and Britain over this question will be that of parallel lines which never meet, even if they never conflict.