Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-22
TEST OF ANTI.WAR PACT
SEEN In MINORITY RACES
Millions in Europe Declared TO Hope for
Revised Frontiers Only by Resort
to Arms.

The practical gentlemen who are the
foreign ministers of Rumania, CZecho-
slovakfa and Jugoslavis are perfectly
aware that the condition which exists
is not peace, but a truce. Every WORD
spoken in Budapest warns them that
only the strength and the opportunity
are lacking to the Magyars at the mo-
ment to speak to recover what they lost
by the treaty Of Trianon. But in pre-
cisely the same way the prime minister
of Hungary, Count Bethlen, knows that
if war be permanently banned; tnen
Pennsylvania. the Banat, the Slovsk
highlands are lost forever and Hun
gary becomes for all time the smallest
of the Balkan states.
When the foreign ministers OF three
considerable countries, all OF which have
alien ninorities in considerable num-
bers within their frontiers. publicly
affirm that they will never hear of any
territorial change. when the same pol
icy is affirmed by the Polish foreign
minister. when it Is championed by
French foreign policy. then you come
face to face with European fact which
no peace mechanism has ever yet been
able to grapple with.
If war is outIawed. all means to
rectify the things which seem utter in
justices to the victims disappears. The
millions who suffer are condemned to
continue to suffer. But since the suffer-
ers frankly proclaim their purpose not
to endure their present condition, since
they and their already liberated breth-
rem proclaim the purpose to force o re-
vision of the contracts which have I'M
posed this condition upon them, those
who benefit by these contracts must cor
respondingly seek by alliances and by
preparation to defend what they hold
by force alone.
Foresaw Difficulties.
President Wilson foresaw these difi-
cultieS, but he imagined that he could
avoid them by imposing the IA points
upon Europe and thus obtaining set
Element which all would accept as Just.
Yet that one of the IA points which
he most successfully maintained. name
~, that which insured Poland access TO
the sea over her own territory. is pre-
cisely the decision which constitutes the
gravest eventual peril to the perna-
hence Of peace in Europe. The fact is
that in the corners of Europe where
races are inextricably mingled there is
no solution which will at one time meet
the minimum demands of the contest
ants.
1t Is not because the peace treaties
did violence to the legitimate aspirations
and rights of certain peoples that peace
Is insecure in Europe The trouble is
that in the east and southeast Of El-
rope 1t Is impossible to make any set
Element which will not do violence to
one OF two races. You win have to erect
either Polish or q German corridor
You will have to put millions Of Hun
garianS under Rumanian rule or mil
lions of Rumanians under Hungarian
control.
Before the World War. there were
upwards of 40 millions of Europeans
living under alien rules They submit
ted only to force. Today you have per-
haps 10 millions of subject minorities,
but the lot of these nninorities. German,
and Hungarian In particular. Is OF con-
Germ to considerable peoples. Nobody
wants war In Europe today. But there
are millions of people for whom war
persistence of their present State-and
war remains the sole means Of escape.
No Recent Change.
That is why for the peoples whose
adherence in spirit would be not only
important but necessary. the Kellogg
proposal constitutes an empty gesture.
1t changes nothing for the Germans,
Magyars and Bulgarians who mean to
be free, save as it threatens to pro-
long their captivity. The declaration Of
Budapest. although not so intended,
is a complete answer to the activity OF
Washington. It takes notice of state
of war which has always existed In Eu-
rope since the fall of Rome and has
suffered no real change in recent times.
While Mr.. Kellog's countrymen con-
tinue to celebrate the Fourth Of July rs
national holiday and pay tribute to
the men who through war won inde-
pendence for their countrymen. how
can they imagine that their present ac-
tivity to prevent future war viii not
seem supreme hypocrisy to the millions
of Germans. Hungarians and others Nv
ing under q tyranny beside which
British rule in America was mild and
altogether admirable? For them this
proposal constitutes one more support for
the system created by the peace treaties.
1t is q bulwark for the treaty Of YER
saiiles and what would really preserve
is not peace but status quo created
by the sword and SO far maintained BY
force alone.
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