Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-28
The French in Berlin.

From no statesman anywhere in these
troubled international times has there
fallen more sagacious, more prom
Using utterance than the one which
dropped from the lips of M. Laval at
Berlin yesterday. He signalized the ar
rival of himself and M. BRAND in the
German capital by proclaiming that
they had not come to usher in the mil
lennium-to obliterate the fundamental
causes of the ancient Franco-Germa
feud. They were there but to pave
the way, by sane, attainable steps,
toward 1.-THE ideal of harmony and un-
derstanding which shall be common
to us both"
Before their first day Of conferences
with Chancellor Bruening and Foreign
Minister Curtius was over, Messrs. Laval
and BRAND had arranged with them
ito forge an instrument in the shape
Of q Franco-German committee which
is to make possible the examination Of
all economic questions of interest to
the Reich and to the Republic"
A business entente cordiale will, Of
course, leave untouched the purely po-
litical controversies which have grown
up on both sides Of the Rhine since
the World War. It will not stifie Ger
man lodgings for revision of the treaty
Of Versailles. It viii not lift the crush
ing burden of reparations from German
backs. It viii not wipe out the Polish
corridor and restore q territorially in
tact Germany in Eastern Prussia. It
viii not crafty German demands for
armament equality with the Reich's
neighbors.
M. Laval, having all these things in
mind, publicly admits that the time
has not yet come ito touch certain
delicate problems" But the time has
arrived, he exclaims in the same breath,
to made modest beginning which will
swiftly prepare better future for our
mutual relations" There speaks a
statesman, and no merely impractical
idealist. Had European statesman
ship, after the assassination Of the
J Archduke Francis Ferdinand in 1914,
| proceeded on such lines, the four years
of blood and tears which ensued might
have been indefinitely postponed. II not
utterly prevented.
The French premier does not indulge
in diplomatic hyperbole when he de-
self In Berlin as IAN important date
in the history of Franco German rela-
/ tons" 1t is more than half a century
since any French minister Of state has
soil in an Official capacity. Yesterday
Laval and BRAND were cheered in I'm
ter den Linden as If they were German
national heroes. I'VE want peace! We
want no more warl" the crowds shrieked
in welcome. One demonstration was
conspicuous by its invisibility. The
Hitlsrites, spearnead of the anti-French
movement, were nowhere to be seen or
heard. Whether or not they were awed
into becoming silence by the extraor-
binary protective measures instituted
for the Frenchmen's safety, the absence
of their raucous note was both wise
and welcome.
M Laval invites the Germans to CO.
operate with France Sin the realm of
reality The realm of reality today,
common to all OF our disordered civili-
zation, is the economic field. The
planet around. the times are of out joint,
II the two greatest industrial peoples
in the heart Of Europe can evolve ways
and means of pooling their resources,
their energies and their wills to eco
nomic peace, political peace some day
as surely as the morning sun follows
the night, win have its dawn, too. The
Franco German vendetta, crux Of the
European situation. viii then be headed
, for oblivion,
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