The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-08-07
Europe's Present Condition

We have not reached a settlement,
but only a basis of settlement with
Germany, provided we, her conquer
ors, stand united for the next fifteen
years, provided we agree to use
force, if necessary, to compel Ger
man compliance with her promises,
made under duress, repudiated IN
advance.
In the meantime the alliance
against Germany has not stood the
test of the Paris Conference unshak-
en-. The Italians have all but left the
conference. Italy has shown in every
conceivable fashion her dissatisfac-
ton with the results so far reached.
French and Italian soldiers have
clashed in .Fiume. Italian journals
have united in the most savage crltl-.
cism of President Wilson, welcomed
in Italy a few months ago as no man
has been welcomed since Italy be-
came a nation.
Those of US who were liz Paris
saw develop the Italian dissatistac-
ton and the equally bitter japanese
resentment against the three nations
which were dominating the Peace
Conference. Of the five great powers
until recently united in the common
struggle against the German, two
have already drifted very far from
their old allies. AS a matter of fact
the old alliance has ceased to exist:
There are left now only the United
States, Britain, and France.
Nor is it less plain that forces are
atwork still further to extend the
disintegration. In the United States
public opinion is being deliberately
and successfully stirred against
Great Britain, against France, and
even more successfully in the direc--
tion of a return to the old policy OF
isolation, which, if adopted, would
leave France and Britain substan-
TALLY alone in the presence Of
vengeful Germany, a hostile Italy,
Russia whose ultimate reintegratlon
is almost certain, but whose future
alignment must remain problematl-
cal. :.
Not only will Russia's alignment
be matter of conjecture, but it is
at least certain that most of the in
fluential Russians, the anti-Bolshe-
yistic leaders, whom one saw or
knew about in Paris, were even more
hostile to the Western powers than
to Germany, regarded what they
termed Allied betrayal as more IN
tolerable than German brutality.
Meantime, Russia herself is the scene
of half a dozen wars, the site Of at
least as many struggling states.
From the Baltic to the Black Sea
chaos and contest endure and we
have become hardened to the reports
of the murder Of hundreds and the
death from starvation and disease
of thousands and even millions.
Such, then, is the Europe that eX-
lists at the moment the treaty with
Germany is signed. Two hundred
millions of people are still IN the
agonizing torture of Bolshevism,
which has proclaimed its hostility to
Western civilization and demonstrat-
ed it. Seventy million Germans in
the old Germany and the present
Austria are sullen and hoping for
revenge. Nearly forty millions OF
Italians hate France and Britain
with a hatred as intense as that they
felt for Austria only five years ago.
Upwards of fifty millions Of people
of the recently liberated races are
fighting with each other and with at
least one of the Great Powers for
their respective "places in the sum
From "Peace with Germany" by
Frank H. Simonds, in the American
Review of Reviews for August, 1919.