Evening star., 1926-09-26

and Germans are constantly conscious Of their
public opinions, their oppositions. The Ger
man nationaliSts demand that German entrance
to the League, which they opposed, shall bring
forth fruits and already chara cter1ze the fall
ure to get these evidence Of the sham Of
the whole thing. French public opinion feels
uneaSily that the actual reappearance OF Ger
many a great power means the opening OF a
period of dangerous, costly diplomatic ma
neuvering.
In the meantime the smaller powers-the
men who made the League in a sense-are not
only disappointed by what has happened but
are disturbed to see the League itself pushed
aside and Geneva become market place where
the great powers trade under cover Of a society
of nations.
Nothing is more difficult at Geneva than to
preserve a true balance between the inordinate
amount Of sentimentality, the rather ferv1d
idealisms which flourish here and the cold.
quite calculating policies the representatives or
several nations adopt toward each other In
Geneva statesmen kiss in public amidst the ap-'
plause of an audience and the indescr1bable
enthusiasm .of League supporters but an hour
or two after the oscuatiop one finds them sep
arated by wholly selfish issues. combating ma
tional causes with more skill than sentiment
So far both Locarno and the present Geneva
episode have both been consequences OF cool.
clear, calculating business consideration rather
politicians have been controlled by business;
they have done their part with very becoming
gestures made toward the League, but at the
bottom it would ne quite impossible to dneren-
tiate between the real objectives pursued now
and in the pre-League period. The fact that
material rather than moral forces explain the
changes does not make them less important
nor less likely to last
II Is absurd to believe that because BRAND
and Stresemann indulged in rather dramatic
gestures in recent days. as they did at Locarno,
the real barriers Of Franco-German understan nd
ing are now eliminated. All barriers are still
there We have before us. beyond any DOUBT
a long period Of difficult negotiation. during
which the spirit Of 1ocarno and the League
will Re invoked by both contestants to serve
their purposes. but discarded with equal 1ac1l-
itys when found inconvenient.
Perhaps I can best illustrate what | mean
by saying again that three days after the
B,ta nd. .Streseman affair in the Assembly L
found all my French and German friends IN
several delegations depressed rather than eA-
ultant pessimstic rather than optimistic. Both
were rather cornically aware that neither nan
in anv real degree changed its position. that
none of the solid difficulties had been dealt
with.
The German delegation is here In the League
to obtain the evacuation of the Sar1'e ana
Rhineland 1t is just certainly here to seek
the return Of the Danzg corridor. toge'her
with Upper Silesia- 1t is here because IT ne
lieves these objectives can be better served
within than without the League. Like every
other great power here represented 1t 1s here
to Use the League to serve its own ends. IL
has accepted the League valuable tnstru-
ment It believes it can fight better here than
anywhere else for what 1t means to accom-
plish. which by and large, Is the destruction