The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-07
BY FRANK H. SIMoNDs.
ME noise of the Presidential election
has served in no small measure to


anniversary Of the armistice of Rethondes,
which was the material evidence OF the win
ming of the world war. 1t is only two years
since the order to cease fire" was greeted
as the most significant single circumstance
within the memory of any man or woman
then living, and there must still survive some
recollection of the joy and the relief with
which all the battle maps were folded up. all
the familiar details of the daily life of world
al war were dismissed. and the allied nations
set themselves TO what promised to be a
brief task of making peace and hardly
longer work of getting back to business.
Looking backward over the two years,
however, it becomes plain that neither peace
nor the normal conditions OF life have been
restored. In some fashion the war has per-
sisted; new wars or further extensions of
the world conflict have filled the newspapers
We have had other battles almost as large
as those of the German war and infinitely
larger than those of the preceding century
in all the region between the Black and
Baltic seas, along the fringes of what was
Romanoff Russia six years ago.
that must be noted is that revealed in the
present relations of those nations, and par
ticularly those four greater Powers, Britain,
France, Italy and the United States, which
together finally achieved victory and just
two years ago were undertaking in close
partnership to put the world on it's feet
again. To have suggested on the morning of
CHI
years would suffice to separate these four
nations, to break into pieces that coalition
which had just VIGOROUSLY closed the great
est war in all human history, would have
been to excite incredulity where it did not
provoke open denunclation.
Much Bitterness Between Them and Foe
Is Forgotten.
Yet 1t is plain that between the four great
Powers who were partners forty eight
months ago there to-day exists varying de-
grees of bitterness. jealousy, resentment. and
in several the feeling toward recent ally
is more envenomed than toward the ancient
enemy, toward the German or Austrian foe
conquered in the world struggle For the
future historian nothing will at once be more
interesting and more puzzling than this sud
den cleavage unless. perhaps, the hopes of
two years ago that the alliance then intact
and cemented by newly shed blood could
endure, could become permanent and a foun
dation for a world organization.
To take account of stock Of the alliance
which defeated Germany as it stands to-day,
is to discover at once that between the
United States and all three of the European
associates there has grown up wall of mis-
apprehension, OF distrust, which must be for
all concerned a bitter reflection when con-
trasted with the relations which existed at
the hour when the European contestants
saw victory at last attained through the
weight which American manhood had added
at the critical hour.
At the present moment the most familiar
comment on American action heard in Great
Britain is that America has deserted cause
II had pledged itself to support abandoned
work which it had begun, turned it's back
upon pledges which were made by the Pres-
dent of the United States and made in its
name. However much this feeling may be
concealed by polite words. by assumed con-
viction of an eventual and even OF a speedy
return of the United States to Europe, the
fact which must be discovered In all British
opinion Is that the United States has proved
unfaithful TO its pledges.
Nor is the French view different, save in
a degree. At Paris the American represent
tatives, which means President Wilson, COM
PEELED the French to abandon certain claims
which represented security. immediate and
eventual, for a France which had been four
times invaded by Germany within the period
OF q century. each time with disastrous con-
sequences. 1t is because America objected
that French occupation OF the left bank of
the Rhine is to be limited to a brief period
of years; it is because President Wilson
objected that France has only an illusory
title TO the Sarre Basin coal mines and no
title to the territories half of which hal
come to her by peaceful bargain long before
the French Revolution.
France Has Yielded but Cannot Get Any
Compensation.
IN return for the French surrender OF
these claims President Wilson signed
treaty which, had II been ratified by the
Senate, would have insured the French of
both American and British aid In case of a
new German attack. But the Senate has not
ratified, while the French have surrendered
their claims. Is II to be wondered. then. that
France looks with degree OF sadness upon