Evening star., 1928-12-16
NEW CRISIS In EUROPE
LIKELY TO FACE HOOVER
Effort to Adjust Debt and Reparation
Tangle Seen as Result of
Chamberlain Statement.

legal rights for certain political and
material advantages. On the material
side he seeks to insure for France pay
mentS sufficient to meet French debt
costs, which are due the United States
and Great Britain, and the further
sums necessary to meet the costs. prin-
cipal and interest included. of the r.
construction of the French devastated
area, which has been rebuilt wholly by
French capital.
On the political side Poincare has,
also, two objectives. Primarily he is
interested in obtaining, in return for
French evacuation of the Rhineland,
a perpetual guarantee that it shall re-
main demilitarized. In the second
place. he is resolved to extort from
Germany recognition of the. perma-
nence of her eastern frontiers. identi-
cal with that given for the western in
the Locarno pact. His purpose is thus
to insure the security of Poland and
Czechoslovakia and the prevention Of
the union of Austria and Germany.
Germany, on her side. is seeking to
get evacuation without any other pay
ment than the incident to the final
adjustment of the reparationS account
itself She argues that since she has
now been for years paying all that has
been required of her. she has fulfilled,
in SO far as it is possible, and that to
keep foreign troops on her soil longer
is contrary to the spirit of the treaty.
Sentiment With Germany.
Public sentiment in Great Britain
patiently holds with Germany, although
the government is legally bound by the
language of the treaty. This British
ic
clear perception that if French troops
stay upon German soil indefinitely.
France and her Slav allies will con-
tinue to dominate Europe by their mill
tary strength, while German resent
ment will abolish all chances of en-
during peace.
The British public, as a whole, be-
l1eveS that once Locarno gave France
British guarantee for Alsace-Lor-
ralne, French security was fortified to
the greatest possible extent. 1t is not
prepared to give Poland or Czechoslo-
vakia any such guarantee, and, since
France does, it is alarmed lest it be
mixed up in some later continental
struggle growing out of the question of
the Polish corridor or of the union of
Austria and Germany
Now, as after the making of peace,
Britain is practically helpless in the
face of the French. France has in the
treaty the law, in her army she has
the power, through her various allies
she has a dominating situation in the
League of Nations. If Great Britain
desires France to make concessions to
Germany she can only support such
desire by a consent to make conces-
sionS to France in the matter of the
war debt. And in the present state of
! bn DNffT fTcIN AY.Ao NI4.-
question.
The situation is complicated by the
American stand French consent to
concessions to Germany could be OBJ
tanned in. return for American assent
to cancellation of the French debt, but
on this point Coolidge is adamant and
Hoover is known to be equally i'm
movable
And, of course, on the political side
the Germans are resolved not to pur-
chase French evacuation by surren-
Ger of their determination to remake
their eastern frontiers or to unite with
Austria. Nor are they willing to con-
cede any new limitations to their SOW
ereignty incident to further demilitari-
zation agreements with respect of the
Rhineland. Thus, while it is patent
that France has the law and has not
the smallest purpose to give up the
law without payment, there is no viSi-
BILE source of payment
Actually, then. we are approaching
new and extremely dangerous crisis IN
Europe. In point of fact we are get
ting back to the old situation, which
preceded the occupation of the Ruhr
and the making of the Dawes plan. At
the moment there is one important diff
ference: Instead of seeking to cOerce
France as Lloyd George did, Baldwin
and his associates are continuing to act
in closest harmony with the French.
British Situation.
The truth of the British situation is
that Britain is helpless in the face of
France save as she has the support OF
the United States. But the naval dis
pute has accentuated a separation be-
tween British and American policies,
which began with the rejection of the
treaty of Versailles.
If Germany Great Britain and the
United States desire to bring about
evacuation, France can only be driven
out or bought out-and in practice she
cannot be driven out. Moreover, having
restored her financial situation without
foreign aid, she is now in a vastly better
position than in 1923-24.
Given the existing situation, nothing
seems more likely tan that very early in
Mr.. Hoovers administration. he will be
confronted by a new European crisis
and fresh European invitations coming
from all directions, British and German
alike, to solve the old riddle, still re-
naming after the Dawes plan, Locarno
and finally the kellogg pact.
(Copyright. 1929