On the second day of the conference Poincaré tried in vain to get the British to agree to use the French plan instead of theirs as the basis of discussion, and to admit as an accepted principle, which it was not necessary to discuss, the French contention that any moratorium should be accompanied by the seizure of productive guarantees. Bonar Law retorted that granting these two demands would be equivalent to accepting the French program. In the debate that followed, only two facts emerged clearly: that Great Britain did not believe that the Ruhr occupation would force immense sums of money out of Germany, while France did; and that France had made up her mind to go ahead and take measures against Germany, not only without Great Britain’s aid, but despite Great Britain’s advice. The British premier bowed to the inevitable. He had failed to dissuade Poincaré; Poincaré had failed to persuade him. So they agreed to disagree. The net result of three years of continuation conferences is well summed up in the comment of a mysterious anonymous writer in the Paris “Figaro,” who wrote on March 31, 1923: Since the Treaty of Versailles, where is the Entente? Where was the Entente in the ten conferences which ten times had diminished our proper share, and in the shabby dealings which the British have repeatedly resorted to against us? Where is the Entente when the British confiscate our gold, when they keep Mr. Bradsbury [_sic_] on the Reparations Commission to check our demands, when they establish Lord d’Abernon at Berlin to strengthen the resistance of the Germans? CHAPTER XXVII THE UNSHEATHED SWORD OF FRANCE The American attitude toward post-bellum problems is summed up in the four words cut into the tomb of General Grant. We prefer Grant’s “Let us have peace” to Foch’s “The war is not ended.” The British are even more eager than we to settle European affairs in such a way as to leave no open sores, no burden of long-term military responsibilities on the Continent. Four hundred million people have to live side by side, and, whatever the virtues and sins, certain European nations cannot indefinitely lord it over others, say the British. Those who have been wronged ought to be compensated, those who have been good ought to be rewarded, and those who have been bad ought to be punished; but practical common sense suggests limits to compensations, rewards, and punishments. After the Treaty of Versailles, Germany still has a population one and a half times that of France, and outcast Russia is the largest country of Europe in area, natural resources, and population.