The Watchman And Southron

FRANCE AND THE RHINELAND
The French government plans to occupy the Ruhr and also take over the civil administration of the Rhineland if Germany does not pay the sums due by January 15. And evidently Germany cannot or will not pay.
The French idea is to take and operate the coal mines, levy toll on the industries and impose various kinds of civil taxes. But it is doubtful whether France can make up the reparations in that way.
Most outside observers seem to agree that such action will merely cripple the ability of Germany to pay the allied war claims.
If that is true, France must know it as well as anybody. There is a belief in many quarters that France would rather have the Rhineland, with the Rhine itself for a permanent bulwark against invasion, than the money due her. With the additional territory, resources and defenses, she might hope to make herself so strong, and Germany so weak, as to compensate her for the lost billions.
It might work that way, but in all probability it would not. There would be merely another Alsace-Lorraine, with Germany nursing a wound in her side and all the bitterness it entailed, until the time came for revenge. Seizure of purely German territory can hardly mean anything but new feuds and new wars.
Not to take drastic measures against a sullen, reluctant and dodging debtor would mean an understandable sacrifice in France's present mood. Yet France's friends cannot but wish that for the sake of her own future as well as the peace of Europe and the world, she could bring herself to make that sacrifice.