The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-25

10 prevent the storm from arriving at
the frontiers Of Western Europe.
months after our military victory. One
veal ago, Germany surprised the al
lied world by an offensive Of a charac-
ter which had not been foreseen, and
very nearly o the war. This was
in March. In November, the Germans
render SO totally unexpected that the
allies were not prepared for operation
for the moment, when Germany sur
rendered.
All our difficulties, and they have
been enormous, have followed from the
fact that we had no policy when the
Germans surrendered. 1t took Foch
from April until July to organize a
policy to meet German attack, and
such a policy could not have been or
ganized had there been no unity OF
command. There has been no unity
of command in the Paris conference,
and as a consequence there has been
no policy as yet adopted to meet the
new fact of Bolshevism tenfold more
serious than the German offensive
strategy of last year.
No Policy Found.
1t is a mistake to hold President
delays and failures Of the Paris con-
f%erences. Had Europe possessed a
clear and well-defined policy when Mr.,
Wilson reached France, he would have
been compelled to fashion his policy in
conformity with that. But when Amer
lea came to Europe for the peace con-
ference, it found Europe with no policy,
no unity of command, no comprehen-
sive scheme for settling the world war.
Mr.. Lloyd George was engaged in an
election. France was utterly exhausted
with the terrible strain of the strug-
nla n.ol nn1,v lo~,,rsNr ~ ~,
task Of opening her railroads ana ner
highways through her devastated
provinces and bringing food and fuel
to millions Of people suddenly freed
from the German yoke. AS for Italy,
she was solving to her own satisfaction
the problem of the Adriatic, which
alone concerned or Interested her.
l do not think there ever was q
parallel in history mere complete thar
the parallel between the strategy o.
the Paris conference as 1t has unrollet
here in the past four months and al.
lied strategy as it unrolled in the worlt
for nearly four years, which only terTAi,
mated when German artillery was with
in range Of Amiens and the breacl
between the British n French armies
seemed about to become permanent. II
case of war, W. had a dozen d~lfferen
s%tretegics dependent on the ideas Q
different nations. We made war Il
Europe and in Africa, In Flanders L
Gallipoli, and we kept them at Cali
poll until the doom Of Serbia had beer
We invited Rumania to her own rui
without any capacity for aiding he
} or IN accurate knowledge Of her con
} ditions. We threw away armies
, wasted our resources, and continued I
5 regard the German as beaten up t
that hour when we emerged victorious
ly from what was, up to that 'momen
the greatest struggle of human history
when, after four years, the fate {
Paris was again in jeopardy and tn
arrival of Germany at the channel port
: was once more a possibility,
We rave been doing the same thin
in Paris. There has been the sam
= blindness, the same inability to see tn
whole field from a single point of view
. and we have about reached the san
y result. Today, we are not thinking
! the arrival Of the Germans in Paris q
y we were a year ago, but we have
! consider a new Bolshevist offensiv
y which may pass the Vistula, whic
q might even conceivably arrive at II
= Rhine, celebrating in it's advance q
those national conceptions in the mine
of the smaller people which were, ar
:. should be, the best guarantee we, hay
:. against a new storm which has mar
points in common with the storm whiC
y destroyed Roman civilization and f
!, centuries turned Europe back to ha
y barism.
70 l don't think it is possible to exa,
~ gerate the extent of pessimism of al
- prehension, today in Paris. not among
ie members of the peace conferenc
whose minds are fixed upon drawn
z lines between Poles and Germans al
Serbs and Runlanians which wou
allocate fairly a certain number
villages whose names are unknown
the world, but amongst those peor
who know the rest of Europe, wi
have seen the new storm arising, al
who realize that we shall not impo
sibly find ourselves before the end
the next four months has come, in
situation as perilous as that we faced
the moment when German troops owe
ran KENNEL mountain and reached L
last line Of defense on the road
Calais.
Copyright, 1919. by the Mcclure New
paper Syndicate \