The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-05-14
BELIEVES WORLD.
RELATIONS IN
GRAVE STATE
Herriot Ayers international
Condition Worst Since
World War.
RY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
seripps-Howard Foreign Editor

WASHING lO4N5 NAdJ II NIfSA
since the World war has the in
ternational situation appeared as
grave as today"
Such is the impression Of for
mer Premier Edouard Herriot Of
France on the eve Of the League Of
Nations conferences at Geneva this
week.
And while the United States is
not a member Of the league, Wash
ineton mas caught the derriot
blues and is anxiously awaiting de-
velopmeGts.
THE most resolute pacifsts-
among whom I count myself" Har-
riot told the United Press, ARE be-
ginning to wonder if the foundation
Of a new order is humanity posi-
BILE" at this time.
Not only are China, India and
Latin America in turmoil, both po-
litically and economically, but all
Europe, from Russia to Portugal, is
seething with perilous unrest.
So unsettled are world condi-
tons, in fact, that there is quiet
talk Of postponing the general dis
armament conference scheduled for
next winter.
Don't Dare Can it Of
But the tension being what it is,
the chancelleries of the world don't
dare call it off for fear of soaring
the nations into the very thing they
wish to avoid.
1t is against this grim background
that the principal nations of the
globe are now foregathering at &C.
neva for perhaps the most impor-
tant meeting the council Of the
league ever has held.
One issue alone would make the
situation critical, even il there were
nothing else up for discussion,
namely the proposed Austro-Ger-
man customs union.
Concluded in secret--sO 1t is al
leged-the bargain is characterized
by France as a thinly-d disguised po-
litical union, the first open step in
the long desired merger of the two
countries. And France stands pre-
pared to fight any such union to
the last ditch on the grounds that
it violates the war treaties and
ieopardizes her national security.
BRAND Assailed
French Foreign Minister Aristide
BRAND, who for years has fought
an uphill fight to bring about a
Franco German understanding and
who was responsible for evacuation
Of the Ruhr and the Rhineland, to-
day finds himself bitterly assailed
by many Of his own countrymen.
So BRAND this week at Geneva
will find himself in a dramatic role.
There he will offer Germany and
Austria and the rest of the old
world his own scheme for a general
economic union-his renewed and
revised plan for an economic United
States OF Europe-as something
better" than the Austro-German
and other purely regional agree
ments.
Also he will be called upon to
fight the Austro-German scheme,
for such is the mandate of his
country, almost to man. Even
paciflsts like Herriot insist upon it.
They regard it as vital to prevent
a new balance of power which, as
the late Tiger Clemenceau warned
just before he died, would end in
Germany's remaking the map of
Europe and telling France into what
little corner she could retire and
die.
Arms Conference Fate Up
Already this Austro- German
union bombshell has blown the
Franco Italian naval accord out of
the water
Upon the outcome of the League
meetings now beginning, therefore.
very largely depends the fate Of the
world arms conference next
February.
Unless France, Germany, Italy
and Austria can get together now,
disarmament next year, or any other
year soon, would be a miracle.