The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-24
SUPREME COUNCIL DIES
League Held in Low Es-
TEEN as Directing Body
in Completing Peace.
SHOWN BY WILMA SEIZURE
international Force Needed
for Policing Purposes to
Succeed.
By LAURENCE HILLS.

ny IA
Special Cable to THE New York HERALD.
Copyright, 1890, by THE New York HERALD
New York Herald Bureau.l
Paris, Oct. %. +
Eighteen months after the Treaty
OF Versailles was completed Europe
still finds herself In a state of flux.
with the future Of many Of her States,
both new and old. and even their ex-
act boundaries, impossible to define.
If the peacemakers. headed by PEesi-
dent Wilson, had any idea that with
the ratification Of the treaty by Eu-
ropean Parliaments these States and
peoples would slip into their new places
and. accepting quickly and without
question the decisions Of the treaty,
would proceed Immediately with their
economic rebuilding. they-the peace
makers-must be sadly disappointed.
Efforts are being made in this d.
vection. but Europe is not yet at
peace, and with the conviction i'm
planted firmly in the minds of diplo-
matists and the people that the treaty
Is a bad one. racial jealousies are
prompting efforts to override its terms.
To a close hand observer of the
present forces at work-forces which
brought about such striking Incl
dents as that connected with the oc-
cupation of Wilma by Polish-Lthu-
anian troops, the Klangenfurt plebis-
cite imbroglio and the Danzig affair
the conclusion is unacceptable that the
treaty no longer has the respect it had
when the peacemakers had just COM
pleted their labors and had exacted
the signatures of the other nations.
Leagues influence Declining.
One reason for this is that the treaty
no longer has behind 1t the collective
force of the Allies, as 1t had the day
1t was promulgated. This force, repre-
scented for a time by the allied Supreme
Council. has slowly but steadily dimin-
ished, as the idea of the good In 1t lost
force In mems minds. The allied Su-
preme Council has virtually become
defunct, and its theoretical successor,
the Council Of the League of Nations.
has failed utterly so far as a substitute
for it. This Is due to many reasons.
chief of which. according to diplomatists,
is that 1t represents moyal force only,
which is not sufficient at the present
time to bring order out of chaos.
The effect of this dispersion of force
behind the treaty is being felt all over
Europe. as practical measures are being
taken to override 1t. AS the Temps,
commenting on the Wilma and Klangen-
furt instances, said:
"a fat accompli should not in any
case modify or suppress incontestable
right. II peoples do not recognize this
truth. and IL they do not return to the
political morality which the Germans
so dangerously compromised, II Is in
evitable that new trials await Europe,
which is now trembling on her founda-
TONS"
Say Covenant Blocks Progress.
The present condition Of affairs re-
specting the Versailles treaty Is attrib-
uted by nino out Of every ten diploma
lists In Europe primarily to the en-
bodying of the league covenant In the
treaty. This cardinal mistake Of the
peace conference Is being emphasized
more and more every day, especially In
tho Wilma affair and in Austria's deci-
sion. to hold plebiscite on union with
Germany, both of which actions indi-
cate the low esteem in which the league
Is held as directing force in complet-
ing the peace conference work.
With its impotence. already palpably
manifested In Its abstentlon from any
Interference to prevent the Russo-Polish
war. the League Council undeniably has
been reduced to a lower state than ever
by its failure to regulate the Lithua-
nian-Polish dispute. wherein Il was
called upon to take a direct hand.
Not only has II been unable to effect
settlement between the Poles and the
LithuanianS. but the authority of its
commission has been openly defied by
Gen. Zellgouslxi in the seizure of Wilma
and by the Polish Government In re-
fusing to obey the Councils order to
compel the evacuation OF Wilma by Gen.
Zellgouski's troops. In other words, the
reputed power of this super-regulating
body upon whose authority, as a result
of the Wilson plans. the execution of
the treaty largely depended. has been
proved on its first real test to be with
out any substance whatever.
international Force Needed.
For instance. the wilma Incident proves
conclusively tho contention Of many
European diplomatists that moral force
alone Is not sufficient for the league
and that without Leon Bourgeois plan
for an International force for policing
purposes the league can never be suo-
cessful.
Poland. as a member of tho league,
asked for league Intervention In the
Lithuanian dispute. behind which lies
those racial animosities peculiar to the
European Continent, but when the
league seemed to be on the point OF re-
fusing wilma. Polish ambition seems to
have risen In revolt and the Polish Gov
eminent, confronted with the alterna-
tive OF obeying the league or popular de-
sire. is now in a quandary.
With no force behind II the league
commission Is unable to effect the evac-
uation OF Wilma by Gen. Zellgouski
himself and In Warsaw IL unable TO get
the Poles to carry out the leagues de-
cision.
This goes to the very bottom of the
whole treaty situation. In the opinion
OF many competent observers here. be-
cause In the making of the treaty the
league scheme was reluctantly accepted
by the European nations as a substi-
tute for the old scheme of the equl-
librium of states and of strategic from
tiers. Whatever may be the cause of
its failures till now the growing inn
potence Of the league In incidents like
this is plainly having an unsettling eff
feet and Is causing European statesmen
TO grope wildly for the older safe-
guards. such as alliances and secret
conventions. Having once -sonA