Evening star., 1919-05-03
WEAKENING FAITH
|NLEAGUE IS SEEN
Disappointment in Paris
Great, Declares Corre-
spondent Simonds.
EUROPE is REACTING
BY FRANK H. sIMONDS.

BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
PARIS, May 1.-TWO days have
passed now since the plenary session
at which the covenant Of the league
of nations was adopted. In that time
1 have talked with scores of people
who were present or whose opinions
would otherwise be interesting, and
the single clear impression as dis
closed for those who were present and
for others is the clear sense of tragic
disappointment and equally manifest
disillusionment.
1t is necessary for a moment to re-
call the circumstances of that session.
When President Wilson had complet-
ed his statement. the voices of Japan,
of Belgium and of France were raised
in immediate protest, while the vacant
place Of Italy was even more eloquent
testimony to facts as they were. More
over. for those who were present.
there was a consciousness that while
the Paris conference was thus adopt
ing the covenant Of the league of ma
tions which carried with 1t no power
to enforce its decisions. actual war
was raging from the Gulf of Finland
to the Crimean peninsula, that the Ru-
manians and bolshevists were fighting g
on the Dniester. the Rumanians and
Poles and bolshevists on the front
from wilma to Pinsk and the Jugoslavs
and Italians were facing each other
in arms on the shores of the Adriatic.
Three Countries Protest.
In the session itself the atmosphere
was unmistakable. Correspondents OF
journals Of countries all over the al
lied world equally testified to the
same impression Of disappointment.
While the formal phrases of the cove.
nant were adopted, there sounded In
the ears OF those who heard these
phrases the guns of a score of armies
still fighting on European soil, and
there was in their minds the realiza-
ton that one of the great allies had
already left the peace conference on
the question of national ambition
while still another was daily threat
ening to take the same course.
Moreover, for a third. France. as for
Italy and Japan. there was plain
warning in the words of Bourgeois
that the covenant Of the league OF
nations had become a dead thing be-
cause no power had been bestowed
bers against attack coming from
without.
There seems to be an impression in
America that opposition to the league
of nations comes from reactionary
quarters in continental Europe, and
tries believed in and accepted this
document. This was the obvious be-
lief of the President when he ap-
peaied to the Italian people over the
heads of their government, but today
the response Of the Italian people is
nh1utstAkable. They have followed
thstr government with the same en-
thusiasm and unanimity that the Ger
man people marched with its gov
ernment in the crucial days Of July.
1914. There has been revealed again
how impossible 1t is to rally q country
to abstract Justice when national as
piration is rebuffed.
Radicals Also Dissatisfied.
Moreover, it is now clear that, II con-
servative Europe always distrusted
the league Of nations, socialist and
ssdical re- ,n Europe ,s2 is mo-. now equally oppos.
socialists Of France, says today:
1--WE declare, then, once for all. that
the proletariat af1lrms its bitter dis
illusionment. We are not astonished
that the international socialist con-
ference at this moment meeting at
Amsterdam also unanimously rejects
this society Of nations"
am convinced that II q measure Of
hope for the future Of the league Of
nations survives In Great Britain.
where conditions in a degree recall
those Of the United States, since
Great Britain. like the United States,
is separated by an ocean rampant from
covenant of the league Of nations has
already become as meaningless as the
at The Hague. The italian
gesture which has produced the crisis
from which we have not yet recovered
was final blow. Wars now going on
lustration of the incapacity Of the
peace conference to deal with boil
shevism.
General Reaction Seen.
Continental Europe, conscious that
Its necessities, Its age-long traditions.
Its peculiar problems. have not been
Is unmistakable In the
throes OF reaction against idealistic
solutions for what it regards as to-
tally practical problems. The French
are demanding from their British and
American allies q guarantee in mill
tary fact against a new German at
tack; the Italians are taking root on
the eastern coast Of the Adriatic, in
F'iume and Dalmatia, in defiance Of the
appeal of the President, and in obe-
dience to the dictates Of the nations
security. The Poles are invading
Lithuania and preparing to attack
Germany to possess themselves OF ter
ritories the conference Of peace has
allotted to them.
The league of nations represented
before all else the conviction Of the
President and those Americans who
share his views. that all men Of all
without regard to ancient RI
were prepared to rally to the new
gospel to overturn their governments
Il their governments refused to heed
the new voice and pursued the old
pathways. The last four months have
clearly and unmistakably demon
strated that the peoples OF Europe
quite as much as and perhaps more
BY old conceptions Of national unity.
political security. individual eco
aomic existence and development.
They have demonstrated that France
will accept no league of nations that
1oes not carry with it the specific ad-
litional guarantee by Great Britain
and the United States against new
attack by Germany, that Italy will
aot resign national aspirations and
sacrifice Ffume, that the Poles accept
10 compromise in or out Of the league
If nations which deprives them Of un-
questioned ownership of Danzig, that
Jugoslavia prefers another war to any
along the Adriatic.
Disillusionment Great.
1t is the growing realization of these
'acts which created the atmosphere in
which the league of nations covenant
was adopted It was the realization
IF these facts which led so many OF
hose who were present to describe
The session as mockery. At all
events, however permanently accurate
he cotemporary conception may be.
no one can mistake Paris Judgment
mo, tho presapt state of the 1eaeue