Evening star., 1930-06-08
BRAND PEACE FORMULA
OVERLOOKS NJUSTICES
France Finds United States of Europe
Desirable to Maintain Her
Present Boundaries.

all French policy lies the necessity to
preserve the status quo created by the
war. The independence of Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia, with
their present political frontiers, con-
stitutes the single real guarantee OF
European security against eventual Ger
man hegemony. From the very close
of the war all French statesmen have
insisted that German acceptance OF the
status quo of the peace treaties must ne
the single guarantee of European peace.
But Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria.
Lithuania, are equally unprepared to
accept the status quo, while Italy, so
- from favoring a United States of
Europe, is proclaiming all the pre-war
precepts of nationalism. Nor is there
any country. either among the victors
or vanQuiShed of the last war, prepared
to surrender any of its political inde-
pendence No common foe imposes
unity on the political side. Unimpaired
sovereignty is still the major principle
of natIonalism in all European states,
big and little.
Rome Appeal Balances.
Politically, too, for Germany the old
conception of an alliance with Russia
to upset the peace treaties Is now bal
anced by an unmiStakable appeal COM
ing from Rome to join in an Italo-
German combination having as its pur-
pose to abolish present French domi-
nance. That Germany in any immedi-
ate future will adopt either of these
ideas is very unlikely. but 1t Is not less
plain that the United States of Europe
conception of BRAND, with its inevitable
French partnership. is hardly less un-
likely.
1t is conceivable that in the next
few years certain limited progress will
be made in certain areas toward ad
justments of tariff. In the Danube
Hapsburg monarchy the necessity for
such adjustment is patent. France and
Germany have already gone long dis
tance in the matter Of iron and steel,
and Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg
have joined in. Even Germany and
Poland have quite recently reached
promising If temporary tariff compro-
misses. But it is easy to exaggerate the
political significance Of these relatively
minor arrangements.
In the larger view, while the project
has enlisted certain number of vision
aries in all countries, the conception
of United States of Europe is little
more than one more French effort to
insure the permanence of the existing
territorial and political status of Eu
rope. At the bottom of any such
scheme would necessarily lie the neces-
sity Of all members mutually to guar
antee each others frontiers.
For France and all of her allies,
Poland and the Little Entente states
this would be simple, for none desires
any expansion. It would be satisfac-
tory to the neutral; of the war-Scan-
dinavian countries, Holland and Switz-
erland, together with Spain and Por-
tugal-because their purposes are iden-
ttcal. It would satisfy British ideas,
because what Britain most desires is
peace on the Continent.
But to the nations which feel them
selves either mutilated or wronguflly
reStricted-Soviet Russia, Fascist Italy
and partioned Germany-the stabiliza-
ton of Europe on present foundations
would be unacceptable. And no eco
nomic advantage in the present state of
mind in these countries would out
weigh. the political disadvantages. For
all three governments-or, more exactly,
for the Fascist and Soviet rulers and
the German people-the BRAND pro-
gram would spell the ruin of most
treasured aspirations and most firmly
held purposes.
Noble Conception on Surface.
On the surface 1t seems a noble con-
ception. and Americans, with the anal
ogy OF their own union in mind, have
found the project most appealing. Nor
can any one mistake the fact that it
would insure certain material advan-
tages. Nevertheless, 1t Is clear upon
examination that inevitably M. BRAND
has hit upon the program most advan-
tageous to his own country as the for
mula for European peace and prosperity.
Fundamentally, the trouble with the
BRAND project, like the League of Ma
tions, the Kellogg Pact and the once
famous and now forgotten Protocol of
Geneva, lies in the fact that it consti-
tutes a formula for preserving present
peace without providing any remedy for
| past injustices-or what for various peo-
| Piles appear injustices. 1t offers to Ger
tain peoples the promise of prosperity
but at the price of abandoning all hope
of restoring what they conceive to be
their national unity or racial solidarity.
| Thus, despite the eminence of the
statesman who has proposed it and the
| present influence of the country which
| he represents, the sensational proposal
has fallen upon deaf ears. 1t has
awakened a certain measure of academic
| interest and a degree of discussion in
the public prints of Europe, but every
| where, even in M. Brands own coun-
/ try, it has been treated as a counsel of
perfection addressed to a continent of
/ realities, a program of International
ism presented to Europe in which ma
! tionaliSm is hardly less intransigeant
than in that country which insists upon
100 per cent Americanism."
(Copyright, 1930.)