New-York tribune., 1920-04-18
Britain and America Are Unable to
Appreciate the European Fear
Of Germany

r1nany
Of the Kapp counter revolution. n.s
single culpable officer was. ppn.
ished.
In this situation the Ebert govern.
ment could not, if it wished, compe,
obedience by the army to the bro.
visions for reduction in numbers an.
in personnel. 1t is not a free agen,
1t must, under military pressure:
seek all possible means to evade this
requirement. 1t must seek som.
way to preserve the army intact
whatever may be the protests of the
recent enemy. In word, to disar,n
Germany is possible only BY
show Of force on the Allied side
which makes resistance impossible
fraught with consequences too grave
to be risked, even by the military
element itself.
But whence will come this force7
Not from the British, not from the
Americans. not from the Italians
Not one of these three nations is
longer concerned with the reduction
Of German military power. America
and Britain are consumed with local
political debates. Italy is frankly
anti-French and eager to see Ger.
man military power regain such
strength as to offer the basis for an
anti,French alliance, based upon a
guaranty to Italy of her Slav, Greek
and Albanian annexations.
Allies Are Divided
And, thanks to recent events. Ger
many has been successful in aiyid-
ing her enemies at the precise mo-
ment when the real issue must bs
decided. The spectacle of the Brit
ish government solemnly adrnonish
ing the French and declining to aid
them IN Furnishing what no one in
Britain or elsewhere claims was not
clear violation of the Treaty OF
Versailles, the sight of the President
Of the United States gravely accus-
ing the present French government
of having become dominated by mill
taristic influences, the shrill voice of
Italy added to the chorus--ttis is
Tor the Germans prospect which
could not even have been hoped for
at this time one year ago.
But after all, we, the Americans.
the British and the Italians, in our
time proclaimed that the purpose
OF the war, beyond all other pu,-
poses, was to break the control o.
Germany by the militaristic element.
And the militaristic control has moi
been broken. The army has no,
been reduced; it is strong in num-
bers; it retains much of its ola
machinery. and the men who COM
mand 1t are the men who made il
what it was during The war. At The
present hour it is employing against
Germans in the west precisely those
ruthless methods which it employed
in France and Belgium. And it is
employing them against the only
men in Germany who have sought
to oppose the militaristic elements.
1t is ferociously numbering those
men who would abolish Junker con-
trol. When the Ruhr rebellion ha.
been stamped out by fire and SWORD
what German will venture again to
challenge the armyo
Frances Purpose
We have come. then, TO the mo
ment when the chief provision o.
the Treaty of Versailles must be
enforced or "scrapped,' and at this
moment German strategy has pro
duced a situation in which only
France. with the tardy support Of
Belgium. is longer interested or cor
cerned with the accomplishment o.
the chief end for which the wa
was waged. Britain, the United
States, Italy. for selfish reasons are
prepared to sacrifice the principle
to THEN own selfish interests, cover
ing their course by solemn denunci.
ations Of French chauvinism, which
upon examination amounts to de-
termination. born Of experiences al
too recent, Of sufferings which eA-
tend over century Of history, 70
escape from German military ter.
rorism by the only known method
by the disarmament Of Germany
and by the creation Of an inviolable
neutral area on either bank Of the
Rhine.
we have, then, reached a moment
exactly analogous to that hour in
Paris yrhap Tho cbocl- - e x,ro 4o%.lJ,.