Evening star., 1927-10-02
BY FRANK III. SIMONDS.

- ENEvA.-In previous articles
have tried to make clear that
\ at the moment when the
~ League of Nations met here
its credit in Europe was gen.
orally at the lowest point in it's his
tory, and that all that happened here
during the Assembly had tended to
confirm the suspicious and intensity
the resentments of the people all over
Europe who believed in the League
on the basis Of European peace and
reconstruction.
In the present session the machin.
cry OF the League is exploited by the
great powers for their narrow and
seiflsh purposes. Any American who
recalls the old days in American poll
tics, the days of Hanna, QUAY and
Platt, and is familiar with national or
State conventions in that era, would
have felt perfectly at home.
The policy of Chamberlain, Strese.
mann and BRAND was to prevent any
dennite action, or even declaration, tn
make their little private bargains and
at home to acquire all possible advan-
tage OF seeming to have acted I'm the
spirit Of the League. Protests from
the spokesman Of the smaller powers,
which desired to see something done
toward disarmament. were ruthlessly
ignored, precisely as similar insur-
gencies used to be subjected to steam
roller tactics in the American conven.
ton.
Great Powers Influence.
For the moment, then, the League
has become almost completely an in.
strument in the hands of the great
powers. In the present session all
the old division between the allied and
the German countries disappeared.
The war exercised very little inf1u.
ence. In place Of the old combina-
tions there was new associa ton,
and that new association represented
the coalition Of the great powers and
their satellites.
What, then, are to be the conse.
quences for the League Of the present
conditions? The question is difficult
to answer, because, particularly in
American minds, there is a concep-
tion of the League as something in
itsek-an organization Independent of
its member nations, with force and
power of it's own. This is not true.
and was never less true than at the
moment.
Equally confusing is the American
view that the League is a transitory
organization, something destined to
vanish soon, and by reason of it's
many recent failures already sinking
into dissolution. The League is al.
ready established as permanently as
any human institution can be, and Is
likely to endure indefinitely.
The men and parties who coktrol in
the great powers are in the main un-
sympathetic, even hostile, to that idea
OF international association which the
League represents. The Baldwin cab
met in Great Britain, the Poincare in
f1uence in the French ministry, repre-.
sent reaction and a stand for intense
nationalism. While neither feels
strong enough openly to ignore the
League, both exercise at Geneva para.
lying influences. That explains the
resignation Of Cecil in Britain and de
Jouvenal In France.
The League today, so far as 1t is a
vital affair, represents the existence
in Europe Of a liberal spirit which
seeks through international associa.
ton and cooperation to remove the
causes OF war; not merely or mainly
to prevent war at the moment when
collision becomes imminent, but to
organize peace on a solid basis and
thus abolish the danger of collision.
It's strength lies not with the govern
ments. but with the people, and comes
from a vague but general popular
perception that wars cannot be pre-.
vented without a change in interna.
tional relations.
Dominating Influence.
But at the present hour the doni.
mating influence in the British and
French cabinets is not liberal 1t is
nationalistic. At the bottom, it be-
lieves only in the old order. It ex-
presses itself in Britain in opposition
to the limitation of naval strength, in
France in the insistence upon the con-
tinued occupation of the Rhineland,
and in Germany in al! matters con-
corning Poland. Naturally, these
three controlling nationalist groups
work together at Geneva, and work
to the same ends.
BY contrast it must be recalled that
When Britain had a Labor govern
ment. when France had a radical
cabinet and Germany was ruled by
coalition of the Republican and Lib
eral parties. Herriot and Macdonald
could work together at Geneva in an
effort to make the League a potent
influence in Europe. Then there was
cooperation between the small states
and the large.
1t follows, then, quite naturally, that
the League will function or fail pre-