Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-18
BY FRANK IL. SIMONDS.

/
panic which has no precedent
IL in nv lifetime" This desCrip-
ton, supplied by one of the
most distinguished of English jour
nalists, fairly sums up the state oil
public opinion at the present hour.
For the first time since the days
Of the Ruhr occupation and in the
Turkish return to Europe-that Is
since 1923-the British public are pro
foundly alarmed.
The truth seems TO be that the
British people, confronted by the APP
palling problem of their own domes-
tic life. struggling with parochial
but colossal economic difficulties
have for several years turned their
backs upon the outside world. In
doing this, too, they have been act
ing under the firm conviction that in
Europe the Locarno agreements had
exercised immediate perils, while in
America the Washington conference
had adjusted any real causes for diff
ference.
A Stormy Period.
Europe has been passing through
a stormy period i'm which from the
Baltic to the Black Sea great powers
and small have come to collisions.
In this turmoil the man in the street
in a more or less confused fashion
has detected the temperance of all
the once familiar circumstances of
the pre-War days.
| Looking toward America, the Brit
on is conscious of certain unpleas-
ant signs. OF the naval conference,
while it was in progress at Geneva,
he thought little. But the repeated
news from the United States that
the American people were displeased
and that a new naval competition
might result has pretty completely
shaken his apathy.
To understand this present state of
mind and to measure its Importance,
it is necessary first of all to appreciate
something of the existing material sit
uation in the British Islands. There
are today, as doubtless there have al.
ways been, two Britains. There is,
first of all. imperial Britain. the ira
ditiOnal John Bull. rich, powerful, APP
pearing at least to foreigners a little
arrogant. This is the John Bull all
Of us, Americans and continentals
alike, instinctiVeiy expect to meet at
international conferences.
But side by side with this John Bull
is another about whom we know rela
lively little. 1t is the John Bull who
is the type of some forty.five millions
of people crowded into a single tiny
island and today facing a life and
death struggle with poverty 1t is
the John Bull staggering under a
burden of debt which has no parallel
today and no precedent in history.
Seen Greatest Loser.
This is the John Bull who knows
his stricken coal industry, the suffer
ing textile trade, who is conscious not
merely of the million permanently or
the dole, but Of the other millions who
live just within the dangerous edge OF
actual suffering. This is the Johr
Bull who is conscious in his own in
articulate fashion that his country, de
spite all the sacrifices of the struggle
and the specious symbols of victory
acquired at the end, has proven the
greatest loser in the World War.
One has to see England as 1t Is
today TO appreciate the enormous sig
nif1cance of the fact that one may
meet more beggars on single block
/ in London than on miles of Paris
boulevards.
am told that there is greater real
suffering at the moment than al any
time since 1914. Certain it is that
che conditions of months still recent
have resulted in an enormous crystal
|
subject of war and peace.
Now it is the misfortune of the
present British Tory government thai
it is out of step with the mass of its
fellow countrymen on this subject
Rightly or wrongly there is an enor
NOUS public belief that at Geneva, in
side the League, and at the naval con
ference, and also in Europe generally
in recent months in the face of the
rapidly increasing list of clashes, Brit
ish craftsmanship has not been up to
the opportunity or sufficiently active.
Cannot Afford Race.
AS for the quarrel with the United
States over naval parity, this is
final source of evaporation. John
Bull, in the mass, has little knowledge
about the merits of the dispute. He
is not a little puzzled and irritated by
what seems to him unreasonable and
even impertinent American demands.
But he is just as conscious that a
naval competition with the United
States is a luxury he cannot anord.
He does not believe the United States
is right, but he knows Uncle Sam is
rich. And he does not believe that
American naval strength has for him
any such menace as would warrant
might prove the traditional last straw
/ do not think John Bull likes Uncle
Sam Sam in prosperity is just little
more unpopular than he was when
material conditions were more equal
But, on the other hand, those who
make British naval policy have not
vet succeeded in persuading John that
Sam is danger or his ships threat
to the British Islands or the British
Empire,
That is why, in my Judgment, there
has been the recent announcement
that the British government would
suspend its cruiser building. Ameri-
can dispatches have suggested that it
was a trick, but l do not believe it.
On the contrary, it seems a very clear
evidence of the exercise Of restrain
ing influence by the masses. The man
in the street has pretty effectively
served notice upon his political mas
ters that they must find way out of
the muddle in which they were in
volved in Geneva, and that avenue of
escape must he something besides a
naval competition.
Up Against 1t.
I do not mean to suggest that John
| Bull is down and out or feels himself
to be down and out. But he is aware
of what he Is up against. If he is
not inundated by the prospect. he
is shedding pleasant illusions. He is
not thinking about vast horizons. He
is not even thinking imperially, but
| he is doing a very obviously consid
cradle amount of thinking.
OF course, Ramsay Macdonald and
LLOYD George, as the leaders of oppo-
sition parties, are taking advantage
of popular dissatisfaction to attack
Baldwin, Chamberlain and Churchill,
but so far as one can judge, the lros-
pete for prizes in a race of its own
, compare BILE to last Falls event.