Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-09-27
BY FRANK III. SIMONDS.

BY FRANK III. SIMONDS.
r. X-PRESIDENT POINCARE'S
- renewal of the controversy
over war guilt has served to
- set in motion again debate
which has in reality never
terminated, and to give a new Ameri-
can angle to the disputed question of
who was responsible for the World
War-responsible in the very precise
sense Of guilt. We have talked and
| we continue to talk Of war guilt in
the Identical way that we speak of
the guilt Of convicted criminal, and
Germany has been considered and
continues to be considered in many
quarters as the criminal nation.
Nevertheless, it is plain that time
has brought many notifications of
wartime judgments. The passionate
protest of the whole German people
against a Judgment written into the
treaty Of Versailles and calculated to
place them permanently in the posi-
ton OF pariah nation has found
echoes in the calmer views Of all his
torians writing effectively. There is
indeed a whole school Of American
historical writer's who have gone to
the other extreme and have striven
and are striving to establish the fact
that, by comparison with other peo-
pies, the Germans are the single inno-
cent race and the victims as well as
the vanquished of the war.
1t Is against this school that the
former President and Prime Minister
| OF France is arguing in his recent
address to an American audience. In
reality he is defending France against
| their indictment, and all his argu-
ments have the double purpose to
prove France was not responsible and
| to demonstrate that Germany was.
Nevertheless, one must Immediately
perceive that in his new brief NJ.
| Poincare unniStakably shifts from
| the ground of war guilt to that Of
| war responsibility.
Distance Traversed Since 1914.
On the whole. moreover, this sig
nificant shift marks the distance
which has been generally traversed
since 1914. The belief. of the war
time and of the first period following
the war that the struggle was the
result of a deliberate conspiracy
| against peace on the part of the rulers
| of Germany, who willed the war, who
planned that 1t should take place as
! 1t did, who on the morrow of the
Serajevo assassination decided to take
advantage of the propitious moment
| Tor launching a campaign for world
| domination. has gone by the board.
Ex-President Poincare aba ndons all
this in his own argument, which prac-
! tically comedies that the civil govern
ment Of Germany was striving to
| avert war at the moment when GER
| tain events-in reality a single event,
/ namely, the Russian general mobiliza-
| tion-changed the face of affairs
Nevertheless. NJ. Poinoare insists that
| the declaration of war was German
| that until 1t came peace was possible,
4 t~ok IN.
| fore rest with the actual declaration.
Back of the crisis. prior to the criti-
| cal days Immediately preceding the
] conflict, Of course. lies the whole story
| of Europe. not alone for generations
but in the days between Tangier and
Serajevo. when forces were shaping
and lines being drawn which fore
| Swallowed the conflict. The antago-
nism between France and Germany
dating specifically to the annexation
| of Alsace-Lorraine-th rivalry of
| Britain and Germany on the high
| seas, of Austria and Russia in the
Balkans-these were in the larger
sense the causes Of the conflict.
Question of Responsibility.
! In these circumstances. who was
| responsible? Germany, because she
pursued policies which brought her
/ into conflict with Britain and
| France? Russia, because she backed
| the smaller Slav peoples against Aus
| tria? Britain, because she lent her
! support to the Franco-Russian alli-
ance and thus revived French hopes
| on the Rhine and stiffened Russian
| policy on the Danube? las to this
| phase, it is plain that one may be-
lieve what one chooses, and that any
belief will be influenced powerfully by
inevitable sympathies.
That Germany was alone or ex-
clusiveIy responsible for the European
unrest which existed in 1914 and had
| existed for a full decade, while seem
| Ing patent to any French or British
| sympathizer and to many Americans
who belong in the same category, will
hardly stand the test of history In
| reality, state OF European anarchy
| had developed as a consequence of
! rivalries and distrusts between the
several great powers. Not one, but
| all nations felt themselves menaced,
Britain with the loss of sea supremacy
France with a new invasion and mutt
lation, Germany with a fatal encir-
| clement, Austria with disintegration.
Status of Pre-War Relations.
| Peace between France and Ger
many, actual peace, was always pos
sible provided France would accent
\ IL,
between Germany and Britain If
Germany would accept British views
as to her naval strength, between
Russia and Austria provided Russia
would renounce her claim to act as
| the protector of Serbia. But the re-
| fusal of all nations to consent to such
sacrifices OF national honor or Of ma
tional interests does not seem to me
to convict any single nation of ex-
| elusive guilt or peculiar moral turpi-
| tude.
Since none Of the nations would
consent to any sacrifices, you had a.
steadily mounting atmosphere of
doubt, dread and suspicion-you had
an extreme sensitiveness. Instead of
a supreme dread OF war. you had this
apprehension we'll nigh counter
balanced by other fears; peoples felt
their inalienable right menaced, the
capacity Of European powers for col.
lective action in the face of inevitable
crises was well nigh abolished. You
had, too, as one detail in the situa-
ton. a rapidly mounting system of
| ornaments. Nations went to I'M
dreamed-of limits in preparing for
conflict.
Dominant Desire of Nations.
| Nevertheless, 1t seems to me that
history will find that in the case Of
| each nation the dominant thought
| was not to make war but to find
security. All peoples felt themselves
truly pacific in spirit but hopelessly
handicapped by the belligerent spirit
existing In rival and neighboring
states. Each people was conscious Of
the rectitude Of its own government
and purposes, but each arrived at
the fatal situation of feeling that its
desires for peace were deliberately
frustrated by the war-wilI across an