Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-25
WAR SPECTER SEEN AS BIG
POWERS DOMINATE LEAGUE
Small Nations Claim They Are Not Get
ting Square Deal at Geneva Assembly.
Disarmament Plans Tagging.

France and Germany have been put
in a situation where neither can move
save with British consent. For
France, British security Is all impor.
ant, particularly so long as the
League Is impotent. For Germany,
British aid can alone mitigate the
character OF French occupation and
restrain the French Polish policy.
In the meantime Chamberlain IL.
nores the League. and in the eyes %
Europe this is dangerous. Thus Brit.
tsh encouragement sent MussolinI
into the Albanian controversy which
recently threatened European peace,
and the new efferveScence in Hun,
gary is charged to the foreign office
inspiration OF Lord Rothermere, whose
Daily Mail has begun a campaign for
the revision of the Magyar frontiers.
While these various incidents develop.
gravely threatening European order,
Britain at Geneva, year after year.
and with all it's influence and author.
ity. seeks to keep the League in lead,
ing strings, to make it an agency,
without independence or importance
in itself.
Effect of British Veto.
It is sense of this British veto
of its own development which ex.
plains the revolt of the League against
Britain. But such revolt can come to
nothing so long as Britain is able to
make bargains with France, Germany
and Italy outside of Geneva which in.
sure support or passive acquiescence
within the League. The small powers
are not strong enough to act against
the great, even If they were united.
No great power is at the moment
ready to break with Britain and cham
piOn the cause of the small powers
and the principles of the protocol.
In this situation one must recognize
that the latest session of the League
not only Is disappointment but in
a sense disaster. Once more spon-
taneous efforts within the League
coming from Poland, Holland and
Norway have been suppressed ruth.
lessly. Chamberlain, BRAND and
Stresemann working together have
made the League a sorry accessory OF
great-power policy. All chance of any
disarmament achievement has been
postponed for at least a year. And
this has been done in the face of
European conditions which manifestly
become daily more difficult, if not
more dangerous.
Not only will there be no progress
toward disarmament in Europe this
year but all hopes which conferred
about the League have been frus-
trated. European peace itself is at
least measurably more precarioua
because of growing cynicism with re-
spect Of the League. No one will at.
tempt to minimize the value of the
League as a meeting place between
representatives Of powers. No one
will undertake to question the useful.
ness of the League In dealing with
minor problems of international i'm
portance.
Larger Problem Suggested.
But there remains the larger prob
lem of European peace-the task of
finding ways and means to bring about
increased confidence and reduced
armies, to abolish the sense of inse-
curity and apprehension which alone
compel peoples struggling under ter.
rife financial burdens to waste their
substance in ornaments. And just
here the failure of Geneva this year
has been complete and almost STAR
thing.
The cause Of this failure cannot be
disguised, the responsibility cannot be
hidden. The eighth assembly of the
League has failed because of the
course pursued here by Chamberlain,
AdAtHLu IlE interpreting the opinions
of the die-hard ministry.
Viewed through American eyes, too,
the League has never seemed to me
less to present field where American
participation could usefully be en-
ployed. True, American representa-
tives might join those of the smaller
powers in seeming to restore some
confidence in the League among the
masses OF people for whom it has been
and perhaps remains-the single
promise Of escape from new catas-
trophe. But the recent experience OF
the Naval Conference discloses how
far we could hope to proceed in such
an undertaking.
Becomes Happy Hunting Ground.
President Wilson's new organiza-
ton which was to break the control
Of foreign Offices over international
relations and restore to the people
some measure at least Of control has
become the happy hunting ground of
the foreign offices themselves. The
small countries have been pushed
aside; the great powers make their
bargains outside and act in unanim-
lty within. But over this whole posi-.
ton the eloquence of the orators of
the great powers casts smoke
screen of a vague, even hypocritical,
appeal to League ideals. That IS the
League OF the eighth assembly.
Copyright. 1927. by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)