Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-31
How Far Premier's Plan Diff
fers From Presidents Is
Held conjecturaI.
POLICY OF CENTURY AGO
IscITED BY DIPLOMATS
French statesman's idea Regarded
as Not Necessarily Fostering
Selfish National Ambitions.

Premier Clemenceau's announced
adherence to what he terms "the old
system of alliances called the balance
of power" has attracted attention OF
students of diplomacy and history at
this capital.
They say he has harked back more
than hundred years and revived the
policy urged by Voltaire, lndorsed py
Mirabeau and vitalized by Talleyrand.
They claim he would have republican
France utilize the instrument en-
ployed by Talleyrand to support the
bourbon legitimacy when ne was rae
tile to France, and he now proposes
"the balance of power" as the key
stone of the league of nations
Treaty of 1915 Cited.
In signing the treaty of January 3,
1918. Talleyrand gained Austria and
England as allies of France and set
up the balance of power. In MS pref
ace to the published correspondence
between Talleyrand and Louis xviii
Pallain says:
like a statesman in declaring that
the real strength of France. espec-
tally after her defeat. lay in her
clearly expressed desire for the res
toration and maintenance of peace;
Recurring to the ideas of Voltaire and
his .Republique Europeenne, at that
moment he said (the words are re-
ported by Baron de Gagern, who
heard him utter them): We must be
good Europeans and moderate.
mand nothing, absolutely nothing,
beyond a just redivision among the
powers; that is to say, the balance
of power
Balance of Power Defined.
"The balance of power was thus
"A combination of the rights. the
interests and the relations OF the
powers among themselves, by which
Europe seeks to obtain:
First, that the rights and posses
sions Of a power shall not be at
tackled by one or several other pow
ers
"Secondly, that one or several other
over Europe. -
- htnatfon
adopted shall render a rupture of the
established order and of the tran
ouillity of Europe difficult or impossi-
ble."
A Sequence of History.
It is held to be a curious coinci-
dence, or rather should it be said Sc
quence of history. that Talleyrand
took his stand then to resist the DOM
mating ambitions of Prussia-the
same Prussia whose continued career
of world conquest has brought about
''He had discerned in the constitu-
ton of Prussia a principle of absorp-
tion and conquest" writes the COM
piler of the correspondence. (which
must dispel any idea Of an alliance
with that power The instructions
which he had received for his conduct
in the approaching congress of Wen
ma, and which. it is said, were proba-
bly, drawn up by himself, covered that
point as follows:
'In Italy it is Austria that must
be prevented from dominating; in
Germany, it is Prussia. The con-
stitution of the Prussian monarchy
Every pretext is good in its sight;
no scruple arrests it. Convenience is
the law
Forecast Prussia's Policy.
What an unerring. If scathing. fore
cast of Prussia's policy was thus
cpigrammatically uttered by Talley-
rand. to be borne out by Prussia s
subsequent course, diplomatists say.
every pretext is good In it's sight;
witness the claim of military neces-
sity in the invasion of Belgium. mo
scruple arrests it," a treaty is scrap
of paper.
Fifteen years later, after he had
seen the excesses and violence of an
other revolution, Talleyrand wrote a
3stter to M. Mole, which was to be
shown to King Louis Phllilppe, In
which he said:
"France ought not to think of max
ing what are called alliances; she
ought to stand well with all, only bet
ter with few powers; that is to say
to keep up such relations of friendship
with them as find expression when po-
|litical events present themselves.
Real Family Alliances.
'"This kind of relation is formed
nowadays on a different principle from
that of earlier times. The progress OF
civilization will henceforth form ou1
ties of kindred. We ought, then. tc
endeavor to attract toward us those
governments in which civilization is
most advanced. There we shall fin6
our real family alliances.
Another prophetic utterance, the dip
lomatists say. Now comes the Presi-
dent of the United States to work with
might and main for a league of those
nations in which civilization is most
advanced. and to make a family al
lance among all mankind.
The question then arises, it is said
how far does Premier Clemenceau's
idea Of a balance of power" differ
from the general plan proposed by
President Wilson 1t is not inferred
khof
involves two of the allied nations
forming an alliance to be exerted
against any other group for merely
selfish national purposes Does it no,
rather portend, they ask. creating all
the allies into q combination which
means a balance of power so great
that no other aggregation of nations