Evening star., 1925-02-22
REAL RETURN TO NORMAL
IS MANIFEST In ENGLAND
London for First Time i'm More Than
E Ten Years Demonstrates Old
# British AlOOfness.

| over, all the domestic political and
| class rivalry had also eliminated in
the arrival of the Labor government,
and what we in America somewhat
humorously described as the British
revolution. You. had sense of surg
ing domestic politics and tumultuous
| international relations. You had al
most, l think, the feeling in the Brit
| ish people that politics, domestic and
| international alike, had escaped con-
troll and were rapidly whirling. Heaven
| alone knew whittier.
Settled to Calm.
Now the surprising phenomenon to
| the traveller who knew those other
times is the amazing contrast of calm.
| 1t is as If the explosion, which was
| the Labor government, at once cleared
! the foreign apd the domestic atmos-
| phere. The revolution has passed
without breaking any domestic china
and undeniably leaving behind a bet
| ter international situation. The aver
age Englishman is no longer display
| ing any hate toward the German, an
| ger toward the Frenchman, or, may
| add, excessive affection toward the
| American.
1t is, 1 think essential to understand
this present British temper precisely,
| because, although the fundamental
|
| proved and are improving. very
grave crisis is at hand. Unless some
viable adjustment of Franco German
! relations can be found within meas
| urable time, every one must perceive
| that Europe is bound to sink back not
merely into the international anarchy
of pre-war times, but into a state of
incoherence enormously increased by
| passions born of the recent struggle.
! be avoided, the burden of preventing
it Will almost inevitably fall upon the
shoulders of British craftsmanship,
since geography has given the Brit
| ish people a measure of security and
| therefore a degree of detachment in
| examining real and ina ginary perils
| to peace.
stable Ministry Great Asset.
Accepting this estimate of the gem
eral European situation, it is evident
| how significant and important is the
| fact that at the present moment
! Great Britain should have a stable
ministry with an enormous majority,
giving 1T an absolute free hand and a
state of mind in the people devoid
of passion and of controlling preju-
dice, calm, and on the whole COM
pletely confident as to the future, no
|
gerated notion of foreign menace or
| of domestic danger.
The average Englishman does not
seem to be thinking in terms of re-
cent enemies, present rivals, future
dangers with any evidence of fear,
| emotion, sentiment. Rather he seems
| to have recovered his balance, dis
missed the recent past and returned
to that attitude of aIoofness which is
80 itg4 49,,
of his own problems with that con-
centration which has sometimes been
described as sacred egoism.
| Moreover, and the fact is important,
he is not taking an unduly pessimis-
| tic view of his own or anybody
| else's situation. If he is an optimist,
| he is a cautious optimist, his conf
| dence is not overconfidence, but
somehow I have the impression 6f
John Bull peering into the looking
| glass and feeling that after all he
rather looks like the John Bull he
has always imagined himself to be,
and that is perhaps the most reassur-
| ing experience for any human being
| of either sex.
Rejected Temporary Ills.
All of which seems to me to mean
that after many hesitations and false
|
ish people are about to resume the
occupation of that position which
the country has occupied in Europe
despite various temporary interrupt
| tionS for more than a century. 1t has
rejected definitely the leadership of
| Lloyd George, who, without regard
| to historic or physical facts, manipu-
! lated foreign relations to produce
| and preserve domestic majorities in
| the House of Commons. 1t has quite
as decisively, but without the same
contempt rejected Ramsay Macdon-
| aid and something like the Wilsonian
| role in Europe. Dexterity and ideal
ism have both lost favor; to be sure
| every body here, as at home, still re-
| CARDS himself as an idealist, but no
| policy or purpose has much chance of
uncritical adoption merely because it
| may be described as idealistic. The
| diplomacy of Austen Chamberlain,
secretary for foreign affairs, and of
the Baldwin cabinet generally is al
| most certain to be more reminiscent
of what is called old-fashioned
diplomacy than of any more recent
method.
| For 10 years Americans in Eng
| land have found their country and
| themselves subjected to searching if
| not bitter criticism because of what
seemed on this side of the water un-
due and even selfish preoccupation
with their own interests. Such
Americans might now, were they in
| England, find their revenge in per-
| ceiving that as to the League of Ma
tions and the continent of Europe
generally the British public has
adopted an attitude undistinguishab BILE
to the naked eye from that American
| attitude which has been so long
reprobated.
Would Like to BE Out of Europe,
| The essential difference today be-
! tween the American and British attf-
, tude toward Europe lies in the fact
! that While America is out of Europe
and means to stay out, Britain only
! knows that it would like to be out
and can't be. The arguments which
filled the American press in the days
of the League of Nations debate
and were directed against American
guarantees for Rhine frontier, guar
| antees which would involve us in
| European struggles, reappear today in
| the British press, directed against
British guarantees of Vistula and
Bug frontiers.
The Englishman is just as much
| resolved not to get mixed up in the
troubles in the east of Europe as
the American was not to get involv-
ed in inevitable complications in
the west What compromises his
position is the fact that anything
which happens in the west of Europe
| imperils his own security but he is
talking today about Poland, Czecho-
| slovakia and Rumania in about the
fashion in which the American dis
| cussed guarantees of western Euro
pean countries in. the great days of
the, League of Nations fight, and