The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-14
Britain Eager for Anglo-Saxon Understanding,
France Wants Assurance of Future,
Germany Seeks Champion
By FRANK Fl. SIMONDS.

A the outset of any discussion of the
Il European reactions resulting from
\ the Presidential election in the United
States It is essential to note the various po-
sltions Of the several European Powers
toward the League of Nations itself For
obvious reasons the effect upon the various
publics abroad is conditioned. first upon
their original attitude toward the project of
the league, and. second, upon their
eventual attitude, determined by their ne
cessities ana resulting policy during the
Paris conference.
Thus one must recognize in the beginning
that the chief disappointment over what
must be recognized In President elect Har-
ding's ante and post election remarks upon
the league and his decision to scrap" the
covenant will be British. Two reasons explain
this-first the covenant, the whole League
of Nations scheme, was in the main British
creation which derived no more than its
vaguest inspiration from President Wilson's
views; second, that in the nature of things
the league thus constructed in accordance
with British notions and mainly by Britons
themselves best answered British ideas of
world association.
BY contrast, French disappointment does
authorship or enthusiasm for principles ex-
pressed in the League of Nations. France
had nothing to do with the framing of the
covenant and never had the smallest enthu-
siasm for the idea of a League of Nations
as conceived by Mr. Wilson and created
by Lord Robert Cecil, Gen. SHUTS and the
only less industrious British representatives
at Paris. The French submitted to the
league solely because they saw in it the only
way to enlist the necessary support of the
United States and retain the only less valu-
able aid of the British, who frankly indicated
that for France to reject President Wilson's
purposes would mean to destroy the Anglo
French alliance.
Italy Never Gave Even Lip Service to
the Covenant.
AS for Italy, sthere never was even lip
service by the Italian representatives at
Paris to the League of Nations covenant.
Italy entered the World War only after she
had made a definite contract with the ma
tons in arms against Germany. That con-
.ract, the Treaty of London of 1915, assured
to her certain specific territorial rewards for
participation, namely, the frontier of the
Alps, to include southern Tyrol well as
the Trentino district, Venetia, Julia, that is,
Trieste and the [strian shore, northern Dali
malta without Fiume but with many of the
islands of the Adriatic littora protectorate
over Albania and material profits in Asia
Minor, including Smyrna.
AZ Paris. Italy presented her contract the
Eoto which had come due and In which she
had given to her allies an enormous con-
tribution in tho shape of four great cam
paigns. which had brought instead of swift
victory. a long struggle incidental defeat
and disastrous invasion. The sole business
OF Orlando and Sonnino at Paris was to col
lect their note But. provided Mr.. Wilson
Lroved favorable TO Italian purposes, Italian
statesmen were quite prepared TO give equal
favor to his. When instead, Mr. Wilson
disclosed unalterabe hostility to almost all
Italian claims Italy quit the Co difference
and subsequently signed the treaty, only
under British pressure.
Outside of the Great Powers there at
the outset real enthusiasm for the League
of Nations, not because of it's altruistic and
ideaIistic provisions but because all the little
states. many of them represented by very
great men, saw in the league a guarantee
and a physical, military guarantee Of their
integrity. On this point Mr. Wilson spoke
often, but never more emphatically than in
his speech of May 81, concerning the exact
text of which there was a dispute between
President Wilson and Senator Spencer,
dispute referred by the former to the Mis-
souri, electorate and decided by that cleo
torate in favor of Spencer
When Enthusiasm of the Little Nations
Faded Away.
But when President Wilson, in the Paris