Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-04
Weeks Events in Europe
Uniformly Depressing
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, October 3.-Europe passes
from one depth of despair to another.
Events Of this week have been uniform
ly depressing. Expectations were never
high in regard to the visit Of Premier
Laval and Foreign Minister BRAND Of
France to Berlin, but the Germans are
profoundly disappointed over the pow
erty Of results. 1t is known that the
private exchange Of views on repara-
tions and disarmaments disclosed that
the French attitude is still adamant. It
Is for no disarmament and no surren-
der of reparations, even though the war
debts be Cancelled. And there was no
mention of French credits for Ger
many.
The position now adopted against
disarmament is that the French army
is the chief defense of Western Europe
against bolshevism.
TIL oAly visible result Of the Laval
BRAND visit is the establishment of a
Franco-German Economic Committee
which, however, was formulated before
the Berlin visit
One pale CLEAN of hope in the i'm
proved relations is the fact that Andre
Francois Poncet, the new French Am
bassador to Berlin, has a sympathetic
appreciation of Germsny's desperate
case. Also there is a growing conf
dence that the French elections will
disclose the French people to be more
amenable to reason than the present
regime, in which the influence of BRAND
is now negligible.
Nor has Geneva corrected the pes
Simism in Berlin. 1t is generally agreed
that the League Of Nations Assembly
has been cherries and unproductive.
This is partly due to the absence of a
responsible member of the British gov
eminent and partly due to the chaos
in European affairs. One hopeful in
cident is that the appeal to the Council
OF the League contributed to relieve the
tension in Manchuria by STRENGTHENING
the hands of the Toxic government
against the war party. This result
largely was due to the cooperation of
the United States with the League, and
the English representatives comment
favorably on the increasing disposition
of America to give support to the
League in matters Of great urgency.
Meanwhile, England is absorbed in
the strangest political drama in living
memory. An immediate election is now
inevitable, but all the parties are swirl
ing in a furious scramble in West
minister in order to dictate the issue.
The die-hard Conservatives are deter.
mined to go to the country On a fun
protectionist policy, and the bulk Of the
Liberals are equally determined against
1t, while agreeing on certain latitude
as emergencies arise
The battle sways to and fro. hour by
hour. The morning produces a new
formula, and a compromise at night
finds 1t torn to ribbons. Premier Ram
the center of the scramble. All want
him to lead, but all want him to lead
on their terms.
Lord Beaverbrook roars for imperial
preference" and threatens to run his
own candidates If the Conservatives
yield an inch. David Lloyd George, from
his retreat. is understood to be pre-
pairing a manifesto against an election.
Winston Churchill in the London Daily
Mail continues to boost Lloyd George
as an indispensable man. Stanley
Baldwin tries to hold back his pro-
tectionist flrebrands and make a gen.
tleman's agreement with the Liberals
by which Macdonald would ask the
country for a doctors mandate to deal
with the patients in the emergency.
But the firebrands threaten to wreck
the election rather than surrender their
tariff quarry.
X \ r X
The Communists are actively organiz-
ing, and great conflicts with the police
have taken place this week In the vi
cinity of. the House Of Commons and
in Glasgow, where a mob Of $4,000 as
sembled and the police had to charge
1t with their clubs
Anxiety is felt in regard to the eff
feet of an election on the position of
sterling. which so far has shown graft
flying strength and tendency to rise,
both from external and internal support,
one feature of which is the large trans
fers by home investors from dollar to
sterling securities. Fears are expressed
that the Indian Conference, which is
still blocked by the Hindu Moslen
struggle. may be rendered abortive by
an election.
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