Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-26
NEW AUSTRO-GERMAN PACT
DISTURBS PEACE OF EUROPE
Fears and Suspicious Recall Uneasy
Days of 19l4-Division of Nations
Feared in Foreign Offices.

achieved permanent results II has
committed the Bruening government,
representing sanity and order, TO q for.
eign policy which fixes the price Of Ger
man cooperation as revision Of from
tiers and rearmaments. Anschluss and
the termination Of reparations pay
mentS.
Yet when the election speeches raised
the issue of revision Germany was told
even in London, that 1t was Impossible,
because 1t was attainable only by war
When the reparations question came up
American, British and French reperIus-
sions disclosed the fact that reputation
would be fatal to German credit abroad
and amendment vas out Of the question
at the moment
In the preparatory disarmament com
mission the German thesis Of equality
In armament which involved reduction
OF the French army to the German level
or increase of the German to the
French. even Lord Cecil protested. and
Germany found England and France
ranged against her. Finally comes this
Anschluss episode, disclosing new bar
rier and fresh veto.
Germans Fear Ruin.
All OF this has to be set alongside the
present German state of mind, which IA
universal and dynamic. The German
people believe that the purpose Of French
and Slav policy Is to prevent German
recovery, to condemn them to economic
misery, accentuated by foreign tribute
in the shape Of reparations; to preserve
the territorial mutilations, which mean
the ruin Of all the German East, terri
tories still German included. Feeling
themselves economically, politically and
farfallV nnrSaNfNfAA fhau aAn g.. ~
AnschluSs affair final proof Of French
purpose, just as they see in the present
economic crisis the consequence Of the
treaty Of Versailles.
But in all the circle about the Ger
man frontiers the Frenchman, the Pole
and the Czech identify this German
e1ervescence with the old pre-war Ger
man state of mind, which, rightly or
wrongly, they have come to view In q
definite light. You have. then, the very
clear situation Of a German people
clamoring for rights without which they
believe they cannot live, and their
neighbors seeing in this clamor the
threat Of q new assault
The thing which makes this new
crisis different from past episodes is
that 1t follows long period of proRres-
sive establishment. 1t Is not that any
people or government Is thinking Of war,
Of making war. but it Is precisely that
the masses in many nations are arriving
at the conclusion that peace Il q dream
The Poles are convinced that pursuit
Of peace by the BRAND road may lead
to new partition. For the Czechs it
spells . new national extinction. For
the French 1t recalls equally the prelude
to 1870 and to 1914. AZ for the Ger
man people, to them the BRAND pro-
gram GAHnnN M MORA kh~R
design to keep them always In chains.
And the very real and present danger
Is that these national eonceu&ions,
which are patiently incompatible with
any general system Of peace or tran.
quiility, are tending to become A1ed.
Convictions Are Fixed.
OF course, that is Just what did .hapA
pen between 1908 and 1914 ana made
at once, but eventually. That war came
far more as q result Of the convictt0ns
the several peoples had ~ to the pur-
poses Of each other than a. q. coEiae-
quence Of any deliberate act or designs
Of statesmen or soldiers Of any country.
The several acts of the statesmen were
not in the light Of reality,
but in that Of this preconceived notion.
What Is far and away the most seri-
ous thing about this Ansehluss crisis. a
that it diScloses peoples all over Europe
getting straight back into the old habit
OF thought as to each other. II can
mean that every new incident that
comes UP will be interpreted against
such background and Will further con-
firm existing doubts, suspicious and
fears.
Again, not the least disturbing aspect
Of this state OF mind is that the states-
men are rapidly becoming more or less
agents of these national
states of mind. They are driven from
behind to take positions and follow
policies abroad, the effect of which they
know In advance. And when these
policies inevitably encounter opposition
ina provoke controversy public opinion
Again I emphasize the fact that
Europe Is not on the edge of another
world War. At the very moment Il
Almost certainly has many years of un-
Easy peace ahead of 1t. The real dan
ger Is that Of relapse to that STATE az
1lyision, rivalry, mistrust and hatred
out Of which in the end wars have al
ways come in Europe. The ideas and
oeals which one associates with the
league OF Nations, with disarmament
Elth Locarno. are losing ground. De-
ng cynical
Thus this Summer Is to see in Etirone
! real crisis, not merely a crisis over
ne question of Anschluss or over anv
'ther single disputed issue, but a crisis
N the whole postwar conception Of
'eace, a crisis which may last right no
o and through the disarmament con-
erence which assemblies next FEBRUARY.
crisis the outcome Of which may well
letermine whether the World war
hanged anything in Europe but q few
rontiers.
(ConvYt1hk gaatN