Note 56 — Chapter IV · MILITARY PREDOMINANCE—AND INSECURITY

The present writer would like to enter a warning here that nothing in this chapter implies that we should disregard France’s very legitimate fears of a revived militarist Germany. The implication is that she is going the right way about to create the very dangers that terrify her. If this were the place to discuss alternative policies, I should certainly go on to urge that England—and America—should make it plain to France that they are prepared to pledge their power to her defence. More than that, both countries should offer to forgo the debts owing to them by France on condition of French adhesion to more workable European arrangements. The last thing to be desired is a rupture, or a mere change of rôles: France to become once more the ‘enemy’ and Germany once more the ‘Ally.’ That outcome would merely duplicate the weary story of the past.