The Brunswick news., 1919-01-14
DANGER is AHEAD.

ieisurely loiterers who are assem-
Bling in Paris for the Peace Con
ference.
Europe is in the flames and they
are blocking the fire brigade: We
are not assuming for a moment 70
give to iong-distatice advice to the
well-informed, close-athand and ca
pable statesmen who are charged. OF
are about to be charged, by the Al
lied Governments with the gigantic
task of setting up new Europe
which shall at least contain min
mum of war risks. They all have
at their constant service vast organ
izations for gathering information,
and the best brains alive to study
that information and distill from it
wisdom We are not entering the
assembled Areopagus of Civilization.
But We do profess to know-what
every reader of the news knows
that while the peace-makers Of Par,s
pl epare meticulously, postpone re-
peatedly and are even accused by GER
tain correspondents with procrastinat-
ing, the whole of eastern Europe is
waiting for the policical ground-plan
on which they are to build stability,
ordered industry and the new govern
mental framework on which the whole
future will hang. That is, the build I
ers are waiting, in anxiety and alarm !
But the destroyers are not wait
ing.
What the peace makers do not
seem to realize is that it is an emer-
gency meeting that has been called. |
is in a bad way. It could
not possibly be otherwise amidst the /
of a war which has upset
the settled governmer IS of more than
half its area, stopped or side-tracked
all. its industrial energy, swept its
commerce from the seas, nilled or
mutilated many millions of its best
workers, called new nations into ex-
istence literally by the dozens and
left even the victorious nations ex-
hausted, denuded and decimated.
One of the exasperating and alarm
ihg features of the situation which
dn 1y strike the casual reader in the
face is that the official forces of law
aid order in eastern Europe, which
should be free to concentrate on pre-
cisely the vital duty indicated by their
name, are kept busy doing in make
shift and temporary fashion the work
CT the Peace Conference and of the
League of Nations it is scheduled to
set up For example, the undoubtedly
pro-Ally and intensely patriotic State
OF Czecho-Sloyakia seems compelled
tc c0nfine its attention largely to it's
lile fences, which it is surely the
duty of the Peace Conference both
to define and defend. President Ma-
saryk is worried about his disputed
territory with the Foles and just
where the line is to be drawn be-
tween his country and Rumania. He
is not worried about his occupation Of
Pressburg, only because the other
claimant ito that Danubian city is
Hungary; but he feels it necessary
to defend his action in the case. Now
il is obvious that President Masaryk
should have nothing to do but organ
ize. and feed his own baby Bohemia,
Just emerged from the she'll. More,
than that, the Allies should have
sufficient organization to send him
the help he needs. He points to the
obvious fact that his country is iso-
lated in mfd4Eurors, without access
either to the sea or to any oof the
Allied nations and exposed to active
e1,emy intrigues. He asks only
daily air service from Staassbourg;
and he can't get it.
Poland is another case in point.
The Poles should not feel under com
pulsioh to fight for their claims at
eiInI, x,,idoJv como ppintc &C wilma