Evening star., 1925-07-05
ALLIES CONCEDE GERMANY
MUST BE GREAT POWER
Lifted Now Are Due to
Unvoiced But Apparent Menace to
Peace If Continued.

viable settlement. acceptable to the
allies, at least tolerabIe TO the Ger
mans.
Political changes in France. in Brit
ain, in Germany itself, have delayed
this adjustment, Yet it is manifest that
the postponement has worked harm
and may be well nigh fatal to Euro
pean peace. The guarantee pact
which is now under discussion and
must dominate all other international
questions for many weeks to come is
no more or less than one more and
| the most serious attempt to find a
basis for settlement with Germany.
Has Humorous Aspect.
| Certainly it is not without it's hum
orous side that just ii years after the.
crisis out OF which the World War
emerged Europe should be solemnly
| discussing the way to consolidate
peace, with the question specifically
raised by German offer TO guarantee
the frontiers of her western neighbors.
almost literally 10 give the same sort
of commitment with respect of France
and Belgium that she gave with re-
spect of Belgium in 1899. And Britain
| Is proposing to underwrite that com
mitment by guaranteeing the guaran-
| tee pact. But this circumstance
serves to emphasize the fact that
Europe has appreciated the truth that
! the roads to any settlement must lead
| through Berlin
| The evacuation of German terri
tory, the admission of Germany 10
| the League of Nations. the making
| of bilateral, guarantee pact with
! Germany, the winding up of interna-
! tional or allied supervision of German
disarmament and the substitution of
some form Of League of Nations con
troll. all of these things which are now
| in the days news were nearly unthink-
able three years ago, when the French
and Belgian troops went into the
Ruhr, and collectively they illustrate
how profoundly the views of the states
men of various nations have changed
in this brief time.
Problem Has Changed
! Tardily. perhaps, but with increas-
ing clarity, the statesmen of all
countries are perceiving that the real
question of peasR or war in Europe
cannot depend solely or mainly upon
the preservation Of an overwhelmingly
strong group of nations exercising
complete control over other ma tions,
! disarmed and occupied by armies rep
resenting the predominant group. The
| problem of staying in Germany has.
almost overnight. given way to that
of getting out of Germany
Under the terms of the treaty of
Versailles allied troops We're to stay
In certain parts of the Rhineland
until 1885, and the ultimate disposition
of the Saar Basin was to he deter
mined in that year by 4 plebiscite
But already there is discussion of
shortening the time of the occupation.
and no Frenchman has the smallest
! Illusion as to the result of any plebi-
scite in the Saar.. and therefore no
real interest in the holding of such a
test. On the contrary. it does not re-
quire too great optimism to forecast
that there will be no plebfscite and
that allied troops will be out. of the
German Rhineland before 1885 or
that in this year the Saar will be
turned back to Germany.
Republics Life in Air.
The relation of the Bourbons to
the allies of 1915 in the end doomed
them with the French nation. 1t is
still open. TO question whether the
German republic will be able to sur
l'vive the long period of enforced COM
pliance with allied demands, but what
is now manifest is that whether
Germany retains the republic or re-
turns TO N,~e monarchy. it will be i'm
possible for her opponents and con-
querers TO direct her course per-
manently. ..
At the moment Germany is dOmi-
mated by tremendous sense of un-
deserved inequality: the German
people with passion and with unan-
unity resent not alone the Condi-
tion of physical inferiority which the
terms of the treaties of peace imposed
upon them, but at least with equal
vehemence the assumption of moral
superiority which the allies disclose in
their attitude, both official and per-
sonal. More emphatically than he
4 I., ~ l.. g,f 1fak-
corridor or the return of Upper
Silesia, the German demands that he
shall have the treatment appropriate
to a member of one of the great
peoples and that his country shall be
addressed in language and manner
suitable to a great power.
Complete Freedom Wanted.
No German cabinet. government,
political party could endure which
again consented to receive messages
couched in the terms which were en-
ployed invariably between the end of
the fighting and the London confer
ence. Nothing in the new Germany
which is rising is more impressive
than this determination to obtain
complete freedom within German
frontiers and equal treatment beyond
these frontiers. If Germans are
divided on score of domestic issues,
separated widely on the great Ques-
tion of republic or monarchy. they
are as one in their determination to
obtain for their country complete
liberty and absolute equality.
In the face of this universal state
of mind. it is plain that prolonged
allied occupation of German soil.
lrepetitions of military inspections, any
sort of treatment which of itself dis
closes the purpose TO hold Germany
down, can have only one consequence.
1t must, in the very nature of things,
rouse a passionate and even an una
rea soning resentment. which at no
distant time would make Germany a
I very real menace to the peace of the
world.
Any visitor in Germany now will I
! feel sure be struck with the fact that
| there is very great similarity be-
tween the feeling of the German over
the fashion in which he and his coun-
| try are treated and the feeling of the
Japanese over the attitude disclosed
in our exclusion policy. And in both
cases one is dealing with imponder-
ables with human emotions which one
cannot accurately appraise, but must
very clearly recognize.
All Views Justified.
1 do not believe there Is any man
alive who can forecast what the new
Germany is to be, whether it is to be
dominated by the old order, or evolve
into a permanent republic, as France
did after 1870. The visitor can find
support for any view he may desire
to justify and no completely satisfying
evidence TO prove any case. 1t is, per-
haps. a question still unsettled, and
not to he settled until the events of