The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-04-20
RUSSO-GERMAN
PACT IS WORRY
IN WASHINGTON
Officials Hope That
1t Means Nothing,
Laurence Says.
By DAVID LAWRENCE,

Although on the surface the Amerf-
can government gives the impress
sion that the Russo-German treaty
has no particular meaning to the
United States, the truth is the wish
is father to the thought. Officials
hope 1t has no meaning. They
would be as disturbed as Euro
! peans if it turned out that the
Russo-German pact meant a poll
teal upheaval in Europe and
consequent delay of reconstruc-
ton. Anything which makes the
| world horizon cloudy has its re-
Hex here, try as officials may
sometimes to conceal their con-
cern.
But the consensus here is that
when all is said and done the Rus
| so-German pact will literally be
found to have very little meaning,
that it can be a source of disturb
ance only if the other governments
choose to pursue a policy which
drives Germany and Russia into
each others arms and makes them
interpret their treaty more or less
as an offensive and defensive al
| lance.
c. S. Set Precedent.
On the subject of concluding
separate treaties without consult
ing the other powers very little is
said in Washington, for the United
States negotiated a separate treaty
with Germany and no official has
ever disclosed whether the allies
had any advance copies of it. In
fact the evidence has been all the
other way-that the treaty was
made without the consent of the
allies on the theory that Germany
and the United States could do as
they please. This precedent is
cited here today as justification for
a German treaty with Russia, an
other former member of the allied
group.
The burden of thought here is
that the allied powers can find
plenty of flaws in the German
Russian pact, plenty of grounds
for charging a violation of the
spirit of the Versailles pact and
they can at later day insist that
admission of Russia and Germany
to the League of Nations cannot be
permitted without an agreement on
the part of Russia or Germany to
renounce the new treaty. The
council of the league has the pow
er to interpret whether treaty is
consistent or inconsistent with the
covenant of the league and it would
be a simple matter for the council
/ to find the Russo-German pact as
coming within that category.
Fear Results.
| But it is not the later day inter
probation or use of the Russo
German treaty which is at the bot
tom of the problem at this time. The
officials of the United States govern
ment whose specific responsibility
it is to watch the Genoa proceed
ings are inclined to attribute much
more importance to the results
which the Russo-German pact will
precipitate rather than the sub
! stance of the pact itself. In other
words, if the pact makes the allied
group realize that they cannot in
vite Russia and Germany into their
| councils as equals and really make
private arrangements 1n1mlcal TO
those two countries; if the treaty
makes France appreciate that per
manent policy of hostility to Ger
many means only Russo-German
alliance and further trouble in Eu-
rope, the cause of economic recon
lstruction will be materially assisted.
What the American government
hopes is that out of all this con-
fusion will come some fundamental
agreements on a pull-together pol
icy in European affairs. Otherwise
the factions and alliances and
group arrangements will keep
alive the flames of human hatred
and the torches of national rival
ry.
Up to Lloyd George
On Lloyd George, the British
prime minister, his skill and re-
sourcefulness, many an American
official is counting. 1t is the eli
max of his career. And it is also
| the crisis as between a system OF
alliances, a return to the balance
of power idea or the making Of a
European concert in which all
powers, large and small, stand as
soyereignS on an equal footing.
Woodrow Wilson fought for the
/ x
the alternative was the system of
| balances and alliances. His pro-
/ phecy is almost come true. Amer
| lea has encouraged the idea of
| four-power treaty by agreeing to
a pact in the Pacific but it is
4 stoutly denied that any military
obligations lurk in the teraty.
| Leaving America out of the prob
lem, it still remains for Europe to
decide whether the tendency of the
last IL months toward little en-
tentes and tri-partite treaties will
mean a permanent system of mill
tary balances in Europe or wheth-
er Lloyd George can apply the
! league idea to the whole of Europe
and coat all the treaties, including
the Russo-German pact, with a
greater agreement for coopera-
ton that supersedes all previous
pacts and paves the way for an
economic accord in which the
United States stands ready to
join.