Republican farmer., 1919-11-28
The CauldrOn of Europe

At no time since the armistice has the ferment in Europe been so great as 1t is now. On the Arctic Coast, from the Baltic southward by way of the three Baltic States, Poland and the Ukraine down to the Black Sea, and in all of the southern regions of Rus sia there is war and want and misery. The Roumanians, though messages from time to time announce that they are beginning to evacuate Hungary, are still in Budapest and have so thor oughly stripped the unhappy country that one scarce knows how it will sur vive in the future unless it be driv- en by it's tortures, as the torturers in tend, to secure actual union with Roumania. Roumania defies and des- pises the Paris Conference.
 Farther to the west D'Annunzio holds triumphant1y his unlawful prize at Plume. The Italian Government is power1ess to eject him, because it has no hold over the army or navy. It is well aware that if it orders the army to march against D'Annunzio, the ar my will disobey and is much more likely to march against the govern ment. D'Annunzio, too, despises the Paris Conference. Meanwhile the Extreme Socialists in Italy are laying their plans for a revolution. If D'An- nuzio and his I'm 1perialist friends set themselves above the established gov ernment, that, say the Socialists is a game that two can play at, and with the rigor of a coal-less winter coming on there may be chance for a sudden blow aimeG by the rev. olutionary forces against the estab- lished system and the monarchical regime.
 Anarchy reaches its height in the Baltic provinces. There are three governments there-the Esthonian, the Lithuanian and the Lettish- whose chief aim is to assure their own independence. They have broken away from the old Russia and they are afraid both of a revived Ger many and of an 1mperiaistic Russia which might be set up on the ruins of the BoIshevist Government. They have all been fighting in one degree or another against the BolShevists at the instigation of the Allies, but latterly they have begun to ask what their fate is likely to be if the pro- teges of the Paris Conference, Deni- Kline and Ko1chak, go to Moscow and establish themselves in power.
 We'll, they may ask. KC lchak has refused to guarantee the indepen- dence of these Baltic States. He goes no further than to say that their fate must eventually be submitted. to a constituent assembly of all Russia, while Denikine has come out boldly with a declaration for a united and iindivisible Russia which bodes III for the border states. Latterly, therefore, aln1 three of the Baltic States, and Finland, too, have shown an increas- ing disposition to make a peace of their own with the Bolsheviki, while the aim of the Allies has been to dissuade them and to keep them at war with the Moscow Government. The Baltic States, too, it will be seen, have no high opinion of the Paris Conference. They do not believe that it has the power to impose it's wishes on the Russian allies and they are therefore disposed to shift for them selves.
 Another implication arises from the presence in Lettland of Won der Goltz and his German divisions. He, too, has been defying the Peace Con- ference, being more afraid of Bo1she- vism than of Germany, actually or dered Germany to keep these troops of hers in Courland, in order that they might form a barrier against an incursion by the Russian Reds and many volunteers were raised in Germany and went out and joined them. Then the Allies grew more afraid of Germany than of Bolshe- visn. They, became aware that this Won der Go1tz yrmy, disciplined, well-equipped and reinforced by many volunteers, was becoming a serious danger to the Baltic states and possibly to the Socialist Govern of f 3r-I,+ T. use of by the militarists in Germany to effect counter-revo1ution.
 So the Allies ordered Germany to bring this army back. As it proved, Germany might order but she had little power.
 The German Government was it. self frightened lest these troops should be used for it's overthrow by the n1ilitarist leaders, who cared lit tie for the German Government and less for the Paris Conference In fact, Won der Goltz's men began to make war on Let's, our Allies, and though no one can say positively what is their aim and part in the ex- traordfnary confusion which prevails, it seems most likely that they will cast in their lot with the White Russians and, where they can, aid in the war against the Bolsheviki
 The one quality which is common to all these wars and browls is the weakness, amounting to almost inn potence, of the Supreme Council at Paris. Won der Goltz, Roumania, D. Annunzio-the story is everywhere the same. Each rebel learns from his predecessors and each, as he rebels with impunits, produces other rebels like himself There will be no peace in Europe, some say, until the Coun- cil once and for all asserts itself, and this the Council does not, or cannot do.
 The Council, others say, has now all the authority that the League of Nations can assert in it's earliest stages; if it cannot even reduce the Roumanians to order, how will the League be able to carry out its will ? Why is it, then, that the Supreme Council wanes and rebellion flour isf1es? If that could be discovered, we should at least have taken a first step toward finding a remedy.
 Up to the time of the ar1nistice the ultimate factor at the, back of all diplomacy was Force. All peoples and governments recognized this and regulated their actions by the knowl- edge. Consciously or unconsciously, they thought in terms Of ultimate Force-that Is to say, Of war con-