Evening star., 1928-12-02
PARIS EXPERIMENT FATE
In HANDS OF TWO STATES
Doomed to Fail Unless Rumania and
Jugoslavia Achieve Orderly
Existence.

/ mania. Jugoslavia and Czechoslsovakia,
only the last has been fortunate enough
| to find real leadership. In MaSyrk SLId
Benes, the CZechoslovakS have from the
| start possessed great president and
an equally great foreign minister.
Moreover, CZechoslovakia contains only
| territories which were in a real sense
Western European. Prague must be
considered in the light of Brussels or
Bern, not in terms of Bucharest or
Belgrade.
| But in the larger sense the future
of the Europe which was created by the
various peace treaties depends upon the
evolution of the three succession states
and of Poland. The destruction of the
| Hapsburg monarchy was the largest
single consequence of the World War.
| Fifty millions of people were free from
alien and hateful tyranny.
| But there remains the great problem
| as to what the Slavs and LatinS of
these four new states are to do with
| their liberty. All have had great, if
| inevitable. difficulties. Poland has, at
least temporarily, abolished its imme-
diate dangers by the PilsudSki dictator
ship. Czechoslovakia alone has been
| able to adopt at once western methods
and establish real political democracy.
In Rumania and in Jugoslavia the evo-
| lutlon remains 10 be acnleVed.
Danger of Civil War.
Unmistakably if the Maniu expert
n1ent fails, the danger of civil war in
Rumania will be continuing. And civil
war in Rurnania would be an instant
danger to the stability of the whole
Eastern European ediflce, because 1t
would be bound to have repercussions
in Hungary Bulgaria and Soviet Rus
sia. Conceivably the old Bratianu ma
chine will be able to regain control
1t has all the experience and most of
the trained politicians at its call. But
such victory could hardly fail to
prove a disaster which could easily be
not merely national but European.
| We are rapidly approaching the time
when the artificial supports to the
| peace settlement of 1919 must disap-
pear. Fifteen years after the fall of
Napoleon the revolution of 1880 drove
| the Bourbons from France, and the
Belgian rising destroyed the union of
| Belgium with Holland, which was an
| essential circumstance in the settlement
of the Congress of Vienna. BY that
time Italy was already beginning to
| struggle for liberty and unity Thus
within decade and a half of Waterloo
| the revision of the settlements of 1915
was actually in progress: the portions
which could not stand the test of time
were beginning to disappear
| Automatically similar change must
arrive in the Europe created in 1919
Whether Poland. Jugoslavia, Rumania
| and Czechoslovakia can endure or are
doomed to disappear depends primarily
on the ability of the peoples of those
countries to create viable political and
social machinery. Poland and Czecho-
slovakla have, in different fashion,
to be sure, given clear proof of an eff
fective will to live. Rumania and Jugo-
slavia have as yet failed to solve the
| problem. A surviving oligarchy in
each country has sought to maintain
| its power at the expense of real ma
| tional fusion and development. And
in each case the result has been con-
| ti1luing and dangerous paralysis.
Solution Must Be Slow.
To expect a rapid solution Of the
Rumanian problem is both unfair and
| illogical. But, on the other hand. it is
perfectly clear that the future in all
the east of Europe depends upon the
evolution of the several succession
states. In these four states are 75,000,-
| 600 people. Collectively they contain,
outside of Russia, the area within
| which Europe can still hope to develop
economically and industrially. But real
economic development must wait upon
political adjustment. Whether Europe
as whole continues peaceful and pros
| porous may easily turn upon whether
the succession states are able to live
| and develop or prove unable to attain
national organization and political order.
Thus nothing in cotemporary Euro
pean circumstances can be more inter-
esting or more important than the pres
ent Rumanian crisis, because it puts to
| the test the whole principle upon which
| the new Europe was fashioned, the
principle of self-determination, which
certainly involves not merely the right
but the capacity of peoples to control
| their own political life. If Rumania
and Jugoslavia are unable to achieve
orderly and efficient national existence,
| then the great experiment of the Paris
settlement of 1919 is foredoomed to fall
ure and Eastern Europe is destined to
revert to the old chaos. accentuated by
the fact that Balkanization has pro-
ceeded to the very heart of the con-
tinent.
Copyright. 1921