Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-04
CRISIS SEEN RISING
OVER LEAGUE MEET
Eve Of Eighth Assembly
Gathering Finds Body in
"DifficuIt Pass"
BY GERYHLE REACHE.

BY Radio to The Star.
PARIS, September 3.--The League
of Nations is in a difficult pass on the
eve of the eighth Assembly meeting.
The recent designations of Henri de
Jouvenel and Niscount Cecil have
aroused a storm of criticism directed
against the League.
Naturally, the Leagues detractors
throughout the world are delighted.
The newspaper Echo de Paris, rep
resenting the military element. and
Humanite, representing the Com
munists. join voices to chant the
Leagues impuissance.
Unequal to Task.
Foreign Minister Brands speech
closing the Interparliamentary Union
serves the Echo de Paris as a pre-
text for attacking the League as
unequal to its task and the Locarnu
policy as useless, and even dangerous.
since it would encourage German re-
venge by paralyzing the Franco
British defense.
A Partisan correspondent the other
day asked Foreign Minister Strese.
mann of Germany what he thought
of the Echo de Paris. Herr StreSe-
mann replied, laughing: "Oh, the
Echo de Paris, I haven't read it for
a long time. 1t would turn me into
q Nationalist"
Indeed, nothing could so excite the
German spirit of revenge as that jour
nal, which treats every proposal of
reconciliation as chimerical. and calls
every statesman who pursues peace
q rainbow chaser.
Attitude of Communists.
It is more natural for the Com
munists to take this tone, and their
accusations are graver. In Lord
Cecil's case they remind us that all
the while he was at Geneva the
League never interviewed in the follow
ing cases:
Wilma, the division of Upper Silesia,
patton of the Ruhr, the granting of
the Mosul oil fields to Great Britain,
the Egyptian appeals to the League.
the Chinese protests against British
in ervention.
1.-The League remains what it is"
Humanite declares, merely an asso-
citation of victorious capitalist powers
for the division of war booty and for
the defense of capitalist dictation in
countries threatened by revolution"
Two Important Steps.
Yet this very week two important
steps were taken with respect to
Franco-German relations. France de-
cided to withdraw thousand troops
from the Rhineland occupation. This
was accomplished, as pre- dicted, be-
fore the League Council met. This
step should have considerable effe :.
but the German Nationalist say 1t
is insufficient, while the French super
patriots accuse NJ. BRAND of weaken
ing the country's security.
M. BRAND replies, Peace is harder
to wage than war. 1t imposes more
thankless tasks"
The other striking fact is this: Pres
dent Loabe of the German Reichstag
was able to declare in the French
Senate chamber during the Interpar.
liamentary Union meeting that II
France evacuated German territory
within six months she would be serv-
ing humanity.
IS Years Progress.
Could the same thing have hap
pened with the roles reversed after the
Franco-German war of 1871? The an
swer to this question shows what
progress has been made in SIS years.
If the Union and the League only
gave peoples an opportunity to state
their grievances, they would still be
useful. But they pursue other OBJ
jectsj which are not negligible-dis-
armament, economic UNDERSTANDINGS,
compulsory arbitration.
Twenty-Five foreign ministers are
about to start for Geneva for these
purposes. Secretary Kellogg of the
United States and Foreign Minister
Tchicherin of Russia will be absent
and eternal peace is not in immediate
view, but 1t is better than making
ministers Of war and navy our only
spokesman.
(Copyright. 1927