Evening star., 1924-04-27
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Continued from First Page)
Britain wants peace, nationally. as
France desires it tragically. she has
readjusted her own domestic and po-
litical problems. she has achieved a
mental rehabilitation of war senti-
ments and war ideas which is little
short of marvellous The war has been
measurably dismissed to the category
of the Napoleonic conflagration. 1t is
ancient history. But in order to make
the world safe for trade. which is
her vital necessity she believes she
must bring about disarmament and she
is directing her main efforts. not at
the removal OF the causes of arma-
ment, but Of the fact of armies
Macdonald is today by all odds, the
strongest man in Europe, and. so far
as foreign affairs are concerned, he
has support in his own country
which no other prime minister has.
He is committed to the idea of max
ing the league of nations some
thing approximately like what the
should be. He means to make it the
administrator of the reparations set
tlement. he means to make it the
single basis Of any guarantee of
French security; that is. he is willing
that Britain should guarantee French
security only on the basis that the
league of nations should determine
whether France is being wantonly at
tackled or not and he believes a simi-
lar guarantee should go to Germany.
Wins French Confidence.
Up to the present moment the Brit
ish prime minister has been more
successful than any Of his predeces-
sors in winning French confidence to
the extent of establishing his own
good faith and honesty. What he has
not yet succeeded in doing-and it is
the main problem--iS to convince
Frenchmen that the method which he
advocates. the ideals which he cham
pions, can be reconciled with the
single naked issue of French security.
That is the battle which is still to be
fought and on it turns the real ques-
tion of peace in Europe for a long
! time to come.
Aside from Germany, every nation
on the continent desires peace with an
abiding and increasing earnestness.
Conditions of living. while still far
from attractive in many nations, have
been slowly improving and peace has
become more and more tolerable. The
temptation. of war, like that of boil
sheviSm, as an escape from intoler-
able circumstances, has diminiShe I'd
everywhere, even in Germany lat
teFly- But there St1ll remains the
outstanding fact: There can be no
peace in Europe until the German ac-
cepts some form of peace settlement.
Back of this lies the second fact.
established by all that has happened
in the past five years, namely, that
there can be no hope Of German ac-
ceptance of any peace settlement
which is not backed by the united
and unbreakable combination of Brit
ain and France. Before such a combi-
nation. which would, in reality, have
the whole support of the contin entail
nations, Germany would in the end
have to bow. She might do it imme-
diately, she might do it after Ge!av
and attempted evasion, but in the end
she would have to do it. and doing it,
she would in some sort be brought
back into the circle of nations which
she has never re-entered since 1914.
Does there exist a basis of mutual
cooperation between France and
Great Britain, each with an equal de-
sire for peace, for L do not think
at bottom there is the smallest differ
ence between the intensity of the de-
sire for peace in the hearts of the
peoples of the two countries? Or 60
different material interests, different
national traditions, different physical
conditions, make such a mutual an
derstanding impossible.
Even if no Anglo French entente is
possible, l do not believe that Europe