Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs.


|HE annual Assembly Of the League
of Nations, which holds its first
important session tomorrow, is
Il beyond question the most in
teresting since 1926, the year of
the admission of Germany. A more
exact parallel however. may be found
first in which the prime ministers of
Britain and France were present.
Nineteen twenty-four was the year
which saw the beginning of that period
of pacification and adjustment which
lasted with certain hesitations until the
opening of the present year, when the
second conference at The Hague finally
disposed of the Young plan and with
it of the problem of reparatlons. Con-
sequent upon this settlement, too, was
the evacuation of the Rhineland in
June, which for all practical purposes
wound up the postwar era.
still Under Shadow Of Ruhr.
When Macdonald and Herriot met
in Geneva in 1924 Europe was still
under the shadow of the occupation OF
the Ruhr and paralyZed by the long
protracted duel between France and
Britain, which had ended In general
European disaster. At this meeting OF
the League the bases were laid Tor the
whole process Of reconciliation wnlcn
has now terminated. Then; Europe. on
the edge of complete ruin, changed both
the courses and the crews of the various
ships of state.
Today the situation, If less acute,
is hardly less disturbing. The London
Naval Conference, whatever It's result
in respect to Anglo American relations,
certainly resulted in the exacerbation
of Franco-Italian feelings. Since that
time there have been long series OF
incidents, which have resulted In. the
creation of two armed camps on either
side of the Alps from Savoy to Nice.
Germans Demand Revision.
Nor is the situation entirely different
on the Rhine. The French troops nave
retired behind the frontier which sepa-
rated France from the Germans from
1915 until 1871 and was restored at the
Paris peace conference. But this I'D
Grafton of occupied Germany, lar from
rronoting peace, has resulted In an ex-
plosion of German demands for q re-
vision of the peace treaties, a revision
Affecting not merely the Polish Irontier'
but also the Belgian.
inevitably this German demand mas
aroused anxiety all over EUROPE anu
particularly in Paris ana warsaw.
BRANDS long campaign for European
is somewhat grandiloquently described
as a plan for a United States OF Europe,
has been sidetracked everywhere, but
most disastrously In his home country,
and Europe is talking not about led
Grafton but of feuds. which extend from
wilma to Lake Prespa.
Deprived Of British Aid.
Will the Assembly Of the League OF
Nations arrest this obvious diStntegra-
ton of European solidarity, this un-
nnistakable drift toward a. pre-war
atmosphere, and even toward pre-war
Combinations? This is the question
which is being asked with q good deal
of interest all over the old continent.
but the real explanation OF the
absence of any dominating optimism
must be disclosed in the fact that at
Geneva BRAND will be deprived OF any
nowerful British aid or support for his
great project. Britain does not advo-
cate European federation for the simple
reason that it cannot participate in such
a union because of its dominions, and
cannot stay out without compromising
its European situation. And Briand,
unsupported by Macdonald and now
bitterly opposed at home by powerful
factions, indeed by Poincare himself, is
not likely to get far.
British Proposal Given.
In an effort to counterbalance the
unfortunate effect of its attitude in the
matter of European union Britain Is
likely to make its play upon the pro-
posal for "all-in" arbitration. But
although France is perfectly willing to
go as far or even farther than Britain
in the matter of agreeing to submit all
disputes to court decision, she is not
likely to regard this as substitute for
the BRAND proposal, which envisageS
mutual guarantees of existing frontiers.
The nossibiIity that Geneva will do