Evening star., 1925-03-22

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cient sanity on both sides OF the
Rhine ultimately to reach, not recon
ciliation, but a modus vivendi. Two
fears, two apprehensions, two dis
trusts, capable of indefinite exploita-
ton by the evil-minded politically in
two countries, stand in the way Of
any real peace
Such impression as I have Of the
purpose of the new German govern
ment is net. 1t seeks to bring about
a situation in which il shall be able
to confront it's own people with the
certainty Of allied evacuation of Ger
man lands within the periods fixed by
the treaty of Versailles. 1t must
have that, or peace. fulfillment of the
Dawes plan, everything else, is i'm
possible. Beyond that it aims at
livable relations with France, and
with unmistakable eagerness at re-
conciliatton alike between the Ger
mans and the English and the Ger
mans and the Americans.
1t undertakes within its limits to
carry out the disarmament provisions,
to meet the new complaints of the
allies, but it quite frankly admits
that it will not be able to arrive at
100 per cent fulfillment. There will
always be enough of margin to
make a technical case against Ger
many, if the desire is to make a case,
because no government can sufficiently
control the army to enforce the last
degree of obedience without arousing
a storm which would be dangerous.
Disarmed in Omcial View.
The official view is that Germany
Is disarmed practically up to the pos
sible; that she is absolutely helpless;
that her helplessness will remain for
years to come, and that this fact is
appreciated by all allied experts. The
conclusion is that the disarmament
question has been raised, not in good
faith, but because France and Britain
are not yet agreed over the matter
of security for France. And the Ger
mans argue that it is not just or fair
that their territory should be occu-
pied, contrary to the treaty, because
the United States rejected the treaty
of guarantee to France, and Britain
did the same
A direct British guarantee to
France would arouse German diff
culties, because 1t would be inter-
preted as a new alliance against Ger
many, but a British declaration to
defend the status quo against any
aggression, herman or FRENCH, WOulO
be, I think, almost welcomed now in
Germany, for at the moment at least
all German thoughts are directed at
the release of the Rhineland from
foreign occupation.
And when they have got back the
Rhine and get rid of allied armies
and allied control of their own arma-
ments, will the Germans rush to the
preparation of new war of revenge
and conquest? There is the ques-
tion-how to answer it? The truth
seems to me to be that If that is the
case, then there is an end of all hope.
But, by contrast, If there is any hope
in the situation, II must lie in the
direction of removing those causes
of German passion which make a new
struggle inescapable.
Germany Badly Punished.
All that defeat, misery. agony, do
mestic turmoil and foreign isolation
can do to make war hideous to the
German mind has been done. The Ger
man may believe himself the victim of
foreign aggression, he may reject with
all conviction the idea of war guilt,
but he cannot escape the all-essential
fact that war has meant for him a
misery which lies outside his own
racial experience since the Thirty
Years War and has deprived him Of