Evening star., 1925-08-02
ANNIVERSARY OF WAR
SEES EUROPE NEAR PEACE
Past Twelve Months Found Powers Set
Ting Down to Maintenance of Neces-
sary Amicable Relations.
BY FRANK III. sIMONDs.

Between August 1 and the night Of
August there were exchanged those
declarations of war which ushered in
the world catastrophy. But if 1t is
inevitable that the future will look
at the dates for their warlike signifi-
canoe, 1t Is no less patent that for
those who live through this time the
one thing which the recurrence of
the dates must suggest is the compari-
son of conditions at the beginning and
at the end Of another annual period;
they will inquire, in a word how
far another year has enabled them to
escape from the evil consequences of
| the struggle.
When, moreover. one reviews the
current year, contrasting 1t with those
Wnlch nave preceded, the first and the
undeniable circumstance to be noted
| must be that this latest year has been
| on every side the best and the most
promising since the outbreak Of the
! supreme struggle. 1t began on the
| high note of the London conference
wherein Europe met to settle the
economic phases of peace. 1t ends at
the moment when, while the allied
| troops are retiring from the Ruhr,
France and Germany are carrying on
| conversations which at least hold out
| the promise Of some adjustment of
| polltlcal differences which are centuries
| old, an adjustment which may have
| something of the resona bleness of the
| Dawes plan.
Past Year Tranquil.
| In fact, what one may say of the
| past II months. the time which lies
| between the tenth and eleventh ami
Versartes of the outbreak of the World
| war, Is that We have lived through
! what may be described as the first
| year which was not filed with crises
/ and marked by very far-reaching
| perils. If it is too much to say that
| we have yet regained the tranquility
OF prewar years. it is no less clear
| that nothing in postwar history COM
| pareS with the last year Moreover
in almost every country domestic polit-
| zeal issues have pushed foreign and
| international relations out of the
| forefront of discussion and interest
| Perhaps 1t would not be an exag-
| geration to say that at last we are
| beginning again to get used to peace,
| Just as for the years of the war and
| the crowded and fateful years which
| Immediately followed the peace CON
| ference in Paris we became accus-
! toned to war. At last we have
| learned to take bolshevfsm calmly. in
! so Tar as 1t may be regarded as an
! imminent peril to the whole fabric
! of our national existences, and we
| nave become accustomed to the idea
OF peaceful Germany and even
| peaceful Europe.
More than all, vaguely but not less
certainly, the past year has seen de-
| velop the consciousness that Europe.
| IL not the world, is on the edge of
a new period. Having lived for a
| time as long as the existence of the
| Napoleonic empire. for a time equal
TO that which separates the crown
ing of Napoleon to Waterloo. in
an era of equal tumult and upheaval.
with actual wars or prospective wars,
battles, sfeges and sudden death, the
normal circumstances of existence, at
| last we enter period when no great
| war impends and when the nations
| most concerned in the last are no
longer threatening new conflicts. but
seeking to liquidate old hostilities.
No Prospect of War.
For the first time in II years il is
now possible to forecast with some
measure of certitude that there is no
prospect of any collision between
great powers discoverable upon the
horizon. 1t is true that Europe faces
a dozen problems, any one of which
may in the long run precipitate a
new war. The liquidation of the last
conflict has done nothing to lessen
the possibility Of new conflicts. since
1t has not and could not abolish such
issues as those arising out of the
! Polish corridor, the titles to Bes-
sarabias to Macedonia, to the Upper
Tyrol and to Upper Silesia. We still
have with us the old Balkans and the
new and similar dangers growing out
of the liberation of other races along
all the eastern marches from Finland
to Thrace.
-,~S- -
disturbing as these questions NAV be.
come, they carry no threat to general
peace in any immediate future ElI.
rope has, 1t may be conjectured with
degree of safety. a full generation
of peace before it, span equal to
that which separates Waterloo from
Novara. Manifestly, if no way can
be found to reconcile Polish and Ger.
man views as to the Polish corridor
and Upper Stlesia, Polish and Lithu
anian aspirations in Wilma, Russian
and Rumanian rivalries In Bessarabia
the dispute between Hungary and the
succession states as to the old lands
OF the crown of st. Stephen now in
cluded with Rumanian, Jugoslav
; and Czechoslovak frontiers, to accom-
modate Rumanian and Bulgarian
claims in the, Dobrudja. Serbian anG
Bulgarian claims in Macedonia OF
| |
!. any one of these Emergencies of ma
tional conception may lead to war
will. indeed, probably insure armed
conflict.
Peace Area Widens.
The outstanding feature of the past
, year has not been any dimunition ol
/ fundamental causes of conflict. What
has happened has been the sudder
and enormous widening of the area
of temporary peace. There has beer
the general appreciation that for the
, present, for any time within one ol
| two decades at the minimum, conf1ic
{ Is impossible for any people in Eu
rope; that it would involve not advan
tage but ruin; that victory on the
i battlefield could not arrest or ever
: mitigate the economic ruin which
would be the portion of victor an(
! vanquished alike
, There, it seems to me, is the grea
r significance of the recent year and Sh,
interesting detail at the present ami
versary. We have all, Americans ant
Europeans alike, been almost con
sciously sitting by the bedside of the
European patient and wondering ovel
his survival. Could he recover? Thi;
n has been the universal question, ant
a the answer has not been obvious IL
+ the DAYS Of the war itself, or those o.
/ bolshevist explosion. of Turkish in
\ vasion, of Ruhr crisis. The patient
e if 1 may press the figure, has beer
( not a little delirious, plainly violent
\ and withal his exhaustion has beer
/ | alarming.
4 Almost i1nperceptibly, however, II
4 recent months the Improvement ha:
: begun and come on apace. And
4 make no question that history viii
!. say that, even If we really exaggerated