Evening star., 1925-07-12

than that which affects the League of
Nations. In reality the German pro-
posal, as it is now amended by the
French note, framed in conference be-
tween representatives of Great Britain
and France, totally changes the char
acter of the league itself-the charac
ter impaired by President Wilson in
the Paris conference. reasserted in the
protocol which was adopted at Geneva
last Summer, but rejected by the Brit
ish government in March of the cur
rent year.
Mr. Wilson's conception of the
League of Nations, which remains in
large measure the American concep-
ton. was of an association of all the
peoples of the world for the preserva-
| ton of peace, and it was founded upon
| the two assumptions that there was a
| fair and rea sonable basis for such
association and that all nations, all
| peoples, once they had shared in this
new adjustment, would not alone hold
! to peace, but overthrow any political
! party, leaders or rulers who under
! took to lead them to war. And Mr..
| Wilson firmly believed that his four
| teen points supplied the fundamental
| chapter which would satisfy peoples
and insure peace.
Peace By Force Alone.
| This conception broke down at Paris,
| where it was clearly disclosed there
was no basis of adjustment which
| could satisfy nations with conflicting
! interests. The peace which was actu-
ally made did measureably satisfy the
| victorious nations. but 1t SO thoroughly
/ and completely dissatisfied the peoples
I of the defeated nations that il was
/ plain at once that the maintenance of
! peace had become the duty and the
/ necessity of the yictors, and that force
/ alone would avail to keep the con-
| Quered nations permanently quiet.
Thus hardly had it taken form when
/ the league became an association of
! the victorious nations to preserve a
| status quo created by warm fact. an
| alliance against the defeated nations
| and against Germany as the one really
/ considerable state capable in some fu-
| ture time of challenging the decisions
registered in the Treaty of Versailles.
| In effect, the various nations, the
! allies of the war and the gamers by
the peace, the succession states, unite
within the League of Nations to guar
1 antee to each other the permanent
possession of what they had won in
! the war and to pledge united action
! against any challenger.
! This evolution of the league insured
American withdrawal. The people of
| this country were and are eager TO
| associate themselves with any form
of league dedicated to the preserva-
| tion of peace, but they are just as
! unanimous in avoiding any commit
| ment which binds them to impose a
! system of frontiers upon a recalcitrant
people, s they are eager to work for
peace itself. Instinctively, if perhaps
with legitimate selfishness, they. too,
/ perceived that peace which has to
be guaranteed peace which, what
ever its disguises. is an imposed
/ peace-can exist only by virtue of
| force and is not in reality peace at all.
Not the Wilson Conception.
| Europe having transformed the
/ original conception of the league from
: its American form to that form which
was in accordance with European
| facts, America withdrew from the
! field. l do not mean to suggest that
| there was anything evil in the Euro
| pean translation of Mr.. Wilson's con-
| ception. In my judgment, the con-
! ception itself has nothing whatever to
] do with European facts. It was con-
ceived 1000 miles from Europe and
without the smallest regard for the
! realities of the European situation.
Faced with the facts, Mr.. Wilson had
|
| going home and accepting a league
/ which was based upon European con-
! ditions.
But with the American withdrawal
the evolution continued. France, Bel.
GUM, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Jugo-
| slavia, Rumania, all with the same
fundamental problems, all with the
same anxieties due to the proximity
of nations which did not accept the
A. a u.
awaited a return of strength TO chal.
lenge it, made their own separate con.
tracts of alliance, which, while doing
lip-service to the League of Nations
were in reality no more than alliances
! of exactly the same sort which had
| existed before the war and had been
/ denounced on all sides as causes of
that confagration.
England, however, with the same in.
| stinct as America, promptly shrank
! from the contracts which had appalled,
J the Americans. When Russia invaded
Poland and the very existence of this
country was at stake. Britain, so far
! from sending ships and troops, advised
! Poland to surrender. Moreover, when
rash British support of the Greeks had
led to disaster in Asia Minor, France
and Italy, with far other interests
than Britain, refused to support Brit.
l
to the humiliating truce of Mudania
and the not less humiliating peace OF
! Lausanne.
In practice, then, the second concep
ton of league broke down like the
first. America and Britain disclosed
the same total unwillingness to sur
render themselves to blank-check
commitments to protect the distant
frontiers of foreign nations-frontiers
| ,{1t, EnI
merely to prevent conflict, while Italy
and France showed that, short OF
some specific alliance, they would not
come to the aid of member nations oi
the league.
Last Summer a final effort was
made in the protocol to arrive at some
solution in accordance with Continen
tai ideas. The constitution of the
league was so amended in the protocol
proposal that it would have been diff
cult for any nation without the sacri
fee of honor to refuse to assist any
other nation attacked. AS the protocol
was framed, it became the most gigan
tic insurance policy in human history
not only incidentally insuring against
war but actually insuring the satisfied
nations against the challenge of those
which were dissatisfied.
Second Conception Breaks Down.
Thus, in fact what had happened
to Mr.. Wilson at Paris happened to
Mr. Macdonald at Geneva. He, like
the American President, was forced
in the end to make concessions totally
Transforming his conception, which
was in truth Wilsonian. And quite
as promptly as the people of the
United States had rejected the league
with the covenant, the people of Great
Britain refused to accept the league
| with the protocol. And with the Brit.
ish refusal the entire Wilsonian con.