Evening star., 1923-12-31

1
| solvent today. If
you are prudent WILLIAM BIRD.
you look at the
names on the board Of directors. II
1 they are notorious plungers ana
| spectators, you take your money TO
| another bank
| Somewhat the same attitude has
been held toward Europe since the
| war America has said, Yes, we
want to do business. We know you're
all right today. We know your ship
/ is seaworthy. but we aren't satlshed
THAT your helmsmen can hold steady
( course in rough political weather.
In short, although there mas never
economic, capacity, there has been
scepticism as to European politics:
| There has been fear lest political
/, ,adventuring should render normal
l economic life impossible.
Therefore. before examining tne
elements of economic opportunity, IT
| Is necessary to look q moment at the
political situation.
| Center of Interest.
| Europe has weathered some pretty
heavy storms in 1929, and while they
! have left the inevitable marks Oh
| their ferocious battering, they have
| also revealed that there is still life
and resistance in the old hulk.
| Politically, the center of interest
has been the Anglo-French alliance.
| One year ago it seemed to nave peen
dissolved. Today it is showing re-
newed vigor and it would be impru-
dent to predict its early demise.
| When, just twelve months ago,
Ronar Law, chief of the strongly pro-
| French conservative party, found II
necessary to break with NJ. Poincare
over the question of forcing Germany
to account, the entente seemed
doomed Mr.. Law was cheered, not
only by his own party. but stili more
! loudly by the liberals and labor1tes or
| the opposition.
| to his death bed, his successor, Stan
iley Baldwin. carried antipathy to
| French policy a step farther, and
| sent, in the shape OF a note from
Ian ultimatum to France, requiring
her to yield to Britain's views on
| European peace or take the conse-
ouences. It was plainly hinted that
mons to pay interest and amortization
on the hree-billion-dollar debt OF
\ France to Great Britain.
| Again the government was backed
by a unanimous pariiamenI.
| But NJ. Poincare. far from eapitu-
| lating, sent a peppery refusal The
| note writing department of the Brit
/ ish foreign office stopped functloning.
Mr.. Baldwin himself came to Paris,
| saw Poincare, and assured him that
A
| done about the matter.
! And so, beaten to a fragile on the
foreign issue, Mr.. Baldwin was
Obliged to look elsewhere fo2 some
! thing that would satisfy MS disap-
pointed compatriots.
! Because what's worrying England
/ is money-ten million dollars a week
paid in doles to the unemployed, and
| three million or so more week due
America as interest on the war debt.
Baldwin, Curzon & Co. had told
| England that sane" reparations
} adjustment would provide markets
| for English goods, work for the
| workless, and. finally, money from
! either Germany or France with which
4 to pay America.
| Defeat for Protection.
| Poincare said mo-" Baldwin re-
piled, Excuse me. my mistake and
| then turned round to look for another
I solution.
He found it in the protective tariff.
| But Bonar Law, at the last previous
| election, had promised that protec-
| tion would be voted without refer
| ring it to the electorate. So Baldwin
| had to order new election before
he could go ahead with his program.
| The result was defeat for protec-
ton, but victory for nobody. All
that can be said of the present Brit
ish parliament is that no matter
| what coalition may be formed, It VIII
not be able to do anything positive.
So Poincare. with solid 500 votes
| behind him in the French chamber,
can do much as he pleases with any
precarious British cabinet that may
\ be set up. The tables are completely
| turned since the days when the un-
| beatable Lloyd George upset one
I Poincare not only has 500 deputies
behind him, but an overwhelminly
superior air force, and as long as this
| condition prevails any nearby island
power will be likely to follow the
/ principle that discretion is the better
part Of valor.
1 Germany. meanwhile, has been hav-
| ing her own kind Of troubles. The
! occupation of the Ruhr, which began
in the first fortnight Of the present
I year, has been a thorn thrust deeply
| into her side nearest the heart and
| scientifically, twisted from time to
time by the French and Belgians.
| Resistance has cost fabulous sums to
the German treasury and driven the
| currency down until where one used
| to count marks by thousands, one
now counts them by millions Of mill
I lions.
Yet Germany, too, has shown an
almost unbelievable vitality through
| her trials. Bankruptcy, ruin, red
revolution, are words easily banded
| about by prophets of evil. and heaven
knows they have been used copiously
1 enough with respect to Germany this
year. But the Hftler-Ludendorff A.
asco and the far from brilliant re-
entry of the crown prince have dem
1 onstrated how much more solid, pa
tient and sagacious the German ma
! tion is than anybody in his widest
| imaginings could suppose. There may
! be a point at which German republi-
/ canism will crack, but that point has
4 not yet been reached, and, viewing
the events of the past>year, it would
be rash indeed to prophesy just when
1T will be.
Typical Dictatex Kiss.
Elsewhere, however. the cause of
democracy has not fiourished per-
ceptibly. The two typical Dictator
| ships-the soviet government in Rus
4 sia and the Mussolini regime in Italy
| have gained strength, and they
have even found playmates, among
whom the biggest is Gen. Primo de
Rivera of Madrid. But then there
has never been popular government
in spain. where politics is largely a
4 question of cliQues and factions.
reached the conclusion that the Soviet
regime has come to stay for an in
4 definitely long time, and while official
recognition is not being accorded by
| the powers, they are making every
effort o.capture Russian trade. They
take somewhat the attitude of a person
who says to his butcher. Il viii buy
your meat. but you can't expect me TO
mingle socially with q man who
islaughters innocent little lambs" Il
The, Turks, by the Treaty of Lau--
same, emerge as the great yictors OF
t.{he world war. They have all the ter
ritory they had before and then SOME.