Evening star., 1922-06-17
All Eyes Turned on London,
Where Premiers Are Try
ing to Agree.
SMALLER POWERS MAKE
THEIR PRESENCE KNOWN
Force Conference to Form Sub
committees of Thirteen Instead
of Eleven Members.
by PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.


BY Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News
Copyright. l92".
THE HAGUE, June 11.-All eyes
are turned toward London. 1t is gen.
orally recognized that Premier Poin-
cares visit to the British capital will
be of more Importance to the success
Of the conference at The Hague than
anything which can be accomplished
here IN the meantime. Indeed. the
question of Franco-British relations
dominates the whole problem of Euro
pean reconstruction. Until France and
Britain come to terms with one another
little can be accomplished at The
Hague or anywhere else.
Gcnon Strained Relation.
ence Prime Minister Lloyd George and
Premier Poincaire made Il sincere ef-
fort in this direction on the basis Of
mutual compromise. Genoa. however.
strained this new relation to the ut
most and left the whole problem wide
open internationally Britain lost and
France gained at Genoa. The neutrals.
=
view, were dtSmayed at Lloyd Georges
startling imprudences. The Germans
and Russians were left with the i'm
preston that Great Britain was un-
able to help them very much. The
little entente was consolidated. despite
British opposition. and the British
prime minister's attack on the league
of nations and on Eduard Benes, pre-
mier of CZechoslovakia. who is recog-
nized everywhere as one of the lead
ing statesmen of Europe. tended to un-
dermine Lloyd Georges prestige.
BIded Time Carefully.
The French position was correspond
ingly strengthened. France disap-
pointed its enemies by refusing to bolt
Genoa after the treaty of Rapallo. 1t
bided its time carefully and made a
final stand with Belgium on the ques-
ton to private property in Russia, to
Britain's discontinue NJ Poincare
skillfully forced a new declaration of
policy from sthe United States in a
sense favorable to France and hostile
to Britain. All this, together with the
obvious failure of his pet scheme of
pan-European conference. ranked
in Lloyd Georges Gaelic soul.
Proposed ItnIo-British Pact.
The British, spurred on by Italy
began to talk vaguely of breaking
with France altogether. Italy, ami
mated by the fierce jealousy of France
with which it repays the quite un-
justified contempt of France for Italy,
openly aspired to take the place hith-
erto held by France in British comb
nations. A Franco British pact never
had been signed. but the Italians pro-
posed an Italo- British pact.
Having tried and failed to disin-
tegrate the little entente in a sense
hostile to France, Carlo Schanzer. the
Italian foreign minister, is alleged to
have proposed secretly to Great Brit
ain, Greece and Spain to form a Med
iterranean naval pact. which would
reduce France under the Washington
treaties to state of complete naval
inferiority, both in the Atlantic and
the Mediterranean, and would threat
en- Frances vital communications with
the North African colonies. None of
these maneuvers has come to a def
mite conclusion, but neither have they
entirely ceased.
Bankers Meeting Next Chapter.
The next chapter of the story is the
bankers meeting in Paris Great
Britain's aim here was to regain with
American opinion the ground lost at
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