Evening star., 1925-02-08

Continued from First Page.)
which is a fatal menace to eventual
peace must be through the League of
Nations and under the forms of the
new protocol. This would, in fact,
amount to a real organization of
Europe against war and for the
maintenance of peace and would per-
NIT the smaller states, neutrals of
the last war, which have every rea-
son to wish to prevent a new con-
fiict, to exercise their influence eff
fectively.
1t would replace the French guaran-
tee of the present situation of Europe,
a guarantee which, as | have tried to
make clear. is a crowning affront to
Germany and at the same time an
inadequate barrier, by a sort of col
lective guarantee of an organized Eu-
rope not allied against Germany, but
united in the common purpose to re-
sist any attack upon the peace of Eu-
rope coming from any direction. 1t
would, in some measure. thrust Eu-
rope between France and Germany; it
would permit the evacuation of the
Rhine, once the responsibilities of the
mem ber states under the protocol and
for its defense were established
Viewpoint of England.
One of the chief difficulties, how
ever, would be that it would infallibly
open a breach between the British
and their dominions, none of which
are any more willing than the United
States to undertake European re-
sponsibilities. But, on the other hand
Great Britain itself is in Europe, has
lost the advantage of isolation which
it once enjoyed before the day of
aircraft and submarines and must
inevitably suffer from any new Euro
pean conf1agration. And the danger
of such a conf1agration, while Franco
German relations remain what they
are, is patent to every thoughtful
Englishman.
What is also plain is that the situ- :
alton now existing cannot continue
long in its present state. 1t must
grow much worse or begin to improve,
and it is almost impossible to believe
now that improvea, ,cnt can be had
while France and Germany are left
to face each other without other in
f1uence intervening. If the situation
does continue, nations will almost in
evitably begin to take partners for the
conflict, which all will feel ines
capable, and the effort to organize
peace in Europe will be replaced by
inc TASK Ol preparing LOT the new
war.
The problem of French security has
been viewed too closely as problem
of French security exclusively. 1t is,
in reality, as the French have seen
from the outset, the problem of Eu-
ropean security and the matter of the
integrity and independence of num-
Der of states liberated by the recent
war. The British, on the other hand,
while conceding the right of France
to demand security for herself, have
viewed with extreme irritation the
French policy of insuring that Sc
curity by alliances binding them in
return to defend the frontiers OF
other states in Europe.
Basis of Protocol.
AT Geneva, last year, the continent
took the French view of the whole
matter and definitely ruled that any
discussion of disarmament must come
after the regulation of that of secur-
ity. And the protocol was drafted as
the basis of security. But the fate of
the protocol depends upon the Brit
ish decision, and it is hard to see any
sign now of any immediate British
ratification of that document. On the
other hand the British are now face TO
face with the fact that the French
will not quit the Rhine or consent to
the abandonment of the Cologne