Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-01
EURoPE'S WEAKEST NATION
RAISES FORMIDABLE PROBLEMS
All Schools Of Current Political Thought
Are Involved In the Long Needed
Plan for Resculng Austria

All Schools Of Current Political Thought
Are Involved In the Long Needed
Plan for RescuIne Austria
TINE plight of Austria, too weak to punish
i and too dangerous in her prostration to
be neglected, affords at the present moment
a strikingly interesting opportunity for OBJ
serving the workings of the various schools
of political thought which have clashed so
violently during this reconstruction period.
The complex and critical case of the most
helpless nation in Europe is listed for early
presentation before the Supreme Council.
Critics of this body who have objected to
its existence beyond the particular emer-
gency-the war--which gave Il life, have
repeatedly denounced its resemblance to the
machinery of an active alliance between the
victor nations of Europe.
The reinstatement of the United States
into the council considerably defects the
force of this condemnation. Colonel Har-
vey is the accredited representative OF a
Nation which has rejected the very treaty
which the council has been preserved to
enforce.
But the piquancy of the situation does not
end with this single feature. Friends of the
League of Nations have wondered sorrow
fully why such an extra legal agency as the
council was maintained after the society of
governments was officially organized.
Article w Of the covenant definitely states
that "the council (of the League) may deal
at its meetings with any matter within the
sphere Of action of the League or affecting
the peace Of the world There can be no
doubt that the distress. bankruptcy and eco
nomic stagnation of Austria menace the
recovery of all civilization.
Until the illnesses of this little inland
10, rapoira1 the
general European recovery must wait. Nor
NAL processes of progress in the United
States must also be delayed until assurances
of continental rehabilitation are at hand.
II the League has not suffered the inter-
ment so persistently proclaimed by its
benefactors, here is chance for 1t to fulfill
one of its essential purposes. It was at
this chance which Austria snatched last fall,
when in a mood Of utter despair she applied
for admission.
Although membership was promptly
granted, specific remedies failed to follow.
The patient degenerated from bad to worse.
Surrounded by unfriendly nations, cut off
from the sea, stripped of fuel resource to
feed her industries, crippled by worthless
currency, Austria has been rapidly sinking
into condition unparalleled In the annals
of civilized nations.
Pan Germans meanwhile have been tilt
ing with impossibilities in their efforts to
achieve the union with Germany expressly
forbidden by Article LXXX Of the Yer
sailles Treaty. Within the last few days
eighty five towns in the province of Salzburg
have voted almost unanimously for this
banned amalgamation. This movement,
while partly political, is In the main eco
nomic and is instructive as revealing the
pitch of desperation reached.
But the League, though perhaps dilatory,
has not been idle. A plan has at last been
formulated by the Finance Committee which,
IL executed, promises a large measure of
practical relief. Its chief feature is the
granting of temporary loans BY the allied
Governments and the erection under the
auspices of the League of a strong bank to
retire all existing paper money and to issue
a new series under proper control
Austria In exchange is urged to balance
her budget reduce her huge civil service
and seek sincerely to remove the customs
barriers which have grown up between her
and neighboring States. Along this last
line some progress has already been made
by the trade agreement signed with pros
porous Czecho Slovakia.
Theoretically these recommendations
which are to be submitted to the League
council appear to be those upon which the
League as a WORKING concern mlHnL act WIN
full authority. But nothing can be accom-
plished without some rectificaton of the
Treaty Of st. Germain, to which the Allies
and Austria are parties.
It Is proposed that Governments entitled
to reparations under this pact and to the
repayment of loans granted for relief pur-
poses shall defer their claims for twenty
years The problem of treaty revision Is
therefore, vitally involved, and 1t Is at this
point that the functioning of the Supreme
Council becomes indispensable.
Diplomatists and statesmen of this era
are by no means unfamiliar with paradoxes.
Yet the embarrassment OF contradictions op
pressing the Austrian situation may be called
unprecedented. The League Is operating !;
the Supreme Council bane of some idealists,
is girding itself for important work. A
treaty negotiated less than two years ago
Is up for revision. America, no partner to
this pact, is privileged if she chooses to pass
upon alterations. Colonel Harvey Is faced
with the possibility of considering a pro-
posal from body over which he has
preached several funeral orations.
Obviously, this is no time for pedants.
The case of Austria is apparently remediable
tions is thrown overheard and space thereby
furnished FOR practical compromises upon
pressing issues.
Such breadth of treatment Is necessary,
not only to a solution OF Austria's Difficult.
ties, but to a settlement of most of the
larger questions arising from the war.