Omaha daily bee., 1917-01-11
Bernard Shav ON Peace Terms



The fact TO be faced is that nome German
Europe is not going to spend the remainder OF
the duration OF this planet sitting on Germany
head. A head with the brains OF 60OOOOOU OF
people in it takes sitting on than we shaIl
have time for. What we really ought to consider
is what is TO become of the alliance when the
pressure under which it riveted is removed
That pressure was the fear OF Germany CFear IS
the handspring OF wary; and we have already
shown that the German terror was scarecrow
Nobody now supposes that Germany can steam
roll Europe or that it was ever worth its while
to try. The day after the peace we shall be more
afraid OF Russia than OF Germany; and all Europe
will be more afraid of US than OF any other single
power. France will for the first time have a very
keen sense that cannot afford to quarrel with
it, and that its feet, which counted for something
in our command OF the sea, hitherto eclIpsed by
the military German bugaboo, will shine out be-
fore the world as a menace to the rest OF the
world of precisely the same character as the
German army was two years ago
Our victory or at worst our demonstration
that German victory is impossible, will knock
the nchpin out Of the allied applicant and the
strained embrace in which the Tommy the Pou
and the Cossack areylow enlaced will relax with
very perceptible lowering OF the temperature OF
the three pairs Of shoulders. The French tariffs
will gall whilst the French navy grows; and the
rugged Russian bear will, from his new vantage
grounds OF Persia and Poland and Constantinople
overshadow regions which, within my lifetime
would have fought for to our last penny sooner
than have left them under Russias influence or
that of Japan much less of the two in alliance.
! rdiculed in my youth for saying that
the balance of power was still as live an issue
ever. Well nobody ridicules me for uttering that
plaitude now; yet some of us imagine that we
can suddenly take the enormous weight OF Ger
many out of the scales and replace it by burn
ing feather without bringing down the opposite
scale with crash that may jerk half the weights
out OF it. Our transient RACES and spites and quar-
relings and vendettas have no place in the diplo
macy OF such balancings. They are useful only
as whisky is useful to soldier who runs short of
British pluck and has to exc it out with Dutch
courage. Still less have they any place in the
diplomacy which alone supersede the diplo-
macy OF military power-balancng. Supernatural
law, when it comes, will not be respecter of
nations; nor will it act on Mr.. Cecil Chesterton's
proposal to establish class of feeble minded pro-
fessonal-crminal nations with curtailed rights as
an excuse for plundering and disabling Germany.
Failing the establishment of supernatural
law, the powers will have to fall back on alliances
before; for the days of single combat between
the great powers are over. And in the bidding
for allies the balance of power will more and more
lie with the United States, because they now form
the only single political unit of the first magni-
tude that is completely self-suffcient England
will want an alliance with America; and Germany
will want an alliance between the west and the
east. 1t will be vital to Englands interest that
Germany should not choose the east; and the only
way to prevent it will be to let it into a western
alliance. Now the exclusion of France from an
Ang German American combination would suit
neither France the combination; and thus we
may get what should have played for all along:
irresistible magnetic nucleus for western civ
ilizaton consisting of an allied France, Germany
Britain and North America Such combination
would almost instantly accrete the Netherlands
and Scandinavia. As compared to it a combinal
tion of Japan. Russia, Italy, France and England
is desperate and unnatural adventure in wanton
heterogeneity; and nothing but the sense of an
overwhelming danger from Germany keeps it to-
gether today. Mr.. Cecil Chesterton, in clamoring
for the utter destruction of that danger is also
clamoring for the inevitable breakup of the COM
bination it has called into being and held together
The more he studies the combinations that are
likely to succeed it, the more he will appreciate
the wisdom of the old political precept Treat
your friend as one who may some day be your
enemy, and your enemy as one who may some
day be your friend