Evening star., 1925-02-15
Continued from First Page.)

mosphere is one of profound calm.
All suspicion of even hostility to
France, which was so marked one
year and three years ago when I was
here, has disappeared, from the sur
face at least. Such irritation as ex-
lists Is directed at Germany, not SO
much because of German wick edness
as what is regarded as German stu
pidity. What British statesmanship
is afraid of is that German policy
will blunder and force the hand Of
the British rulers, who are all for
temporizing and gradually solving
the difficult problems. which are
mainly difficult because of their ex-
treme complexity.
Note that British statesmanship is
enormously concerned in preventing
any incident" in Europe at the, mo-
ment, whether a French or German
incident" 1t is struggling with the
problem of giving France an ire
ducfble minimum of security by
guarantee without offending Germany
or permitting guarantee to take on
the character of a separate, there
fore anti-German, alliance. 1t is
equally concerned with finding a way
to modify the more sweeping provi-
sions Of the protocol, SO far as Brit
ain is concerned, without injuring
the prestige of the league or arous-
ing continental resentment, er-this
is an obvious danger-seemtng to in
innate to Germany that she has Brit
ish assent to a policy of aggression
in eastern Europe, provided She will
"be good" in the west After all,
this is precisely the situation in
which the genius Of the British race
shows itself at its best. The quail
x;1 III i1I> l1y
those which Britons have always dis
played to a greater extent than any
other people, but they are qualities
which are, on the whole, unmistak-
able assets in the present Baldwin
cabinet.
Today think one may assume that
every nation in Europe, every people.
at least desire peace. but the expert
ences of war have been for all con-
tinental peoples SO terrible that
peace has left them with a tremen-
dously exaggerated If wholly natural
and comprehensive conception of
national and international assurance
and insurance.
Peace changed some relations, but
it intensified rather than reduced ira
dition and racial and national appre-
tensions
Britain's Calm View.
The British, on the other hand, by
reason of their relative isolation, are
in a. position to take a far calmer
view of realities. Moreover, since
their isolation is only relative, they
are bound to be involved in any new
struggle. They have a passion for
peace which is uncolored by any ma
tional conviction that peace Is at
tainable, save at the price of meas
ures which are in themselves calcu-
lated to abolish the possibility of en-
during peace. One must point out in
all fairness that thu danger for the
British lies precisely in the possibil-
ity that this relative isolation may
lead to the adoption OF policies which
shall seem to the nations feeling
themselves endangered as selfish and
simply calculating. In that case the
advantage of the British position
would be lost, British statesmen
would promptly encounter precisely
the continental coalition which
wrecked the Genoa conference. That
is why a mere rejection of the pro-
tocol would be, to use the term
ascribed to Chamberlain, nothing
less than fatal
Also British influence would be de-
stroyed, British policy compromised,
IL Germany should in the end take an
intransigeant attitude and adopt
clustering methods. Then reluctant
ly, certainly. but ineluctably, 1 be-
lieve, the British would be driven
back to a real alliance with France.
For one thing that every American
must realize is that at the bottom of
his heart every Englishman knows now.
after the last war, that he is Euro
pean; that his immunity Is thing
of the past; that for him there Is no
peace unless there is peace in Eu
rope. II he fails in his endeavor to
promote peace, then he must face the
practical problem of what side to
take in any new struggle. That he
would decide for France still I think
remains inevitable, at least provided
n were the Jss1D - Herriot facing