Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29

! customs receipts Of the two countries
to be pooled and divided, and the like.
The agreement to run for three years,
after which it may be terminated on a
years notice.
The notification Of the agreement to
other countries asserts that 1t Is In har-
mony with the Pan-European concep-
ton of BRAND and indeed invites other
countries to make similar agreements
with Germany and Austria. This Is
sincere or it isn't. Some, of course, are
saying that the agreement Is a move
toward anschlusS camouhaged with eX-
traordinary ingenuity, and they go on
to say that the invitation to other
countries has in mind an economic bloc
to include at least Hungary, Rumahia
the Jugoslavia, which, of course, Ger
many would dominate.
No doubt thousands Of people are
| looking up the clauses Of the Versailles
and St. German treaties relating to Ger
man-Austrian relations. OF course. the
| agreement does not directly contravene
any of these clauses, but It Is a pretty
question whether or no 1t traverses their
spirit. Moreover, 1t may powerfully be
argued that it traverSeS not only the
spirit, but also the letter of the protocol
signed by Austria in october, 1922, in
connection with the guarantee by Great
Britain, France, Italy and Czecho-
slovakia, of an international loan Of
100000 gold crowns for Austrian
rehabilitation.
We awaited with impatience an IN
dication of the reactions to the agree
ment of the Pan-European Commission,
which, under Brands presidency, met
during the week. But the commission
was amazingly discreet; it simply
wouldn't touch the issue. You see, the
idea of that bloc I glanced at above
might be thought to harmonic with
Pan-Europe, and then again it might
not.
On March IS Arthur Henderson, the
British foreign minister, being In Paris,
had a talk with Aristide BRAND, the
French foreign minister. At its con-
clusion he made the announcement for
publication that 1t was up to the
Council Of the League of Nations, under
whose supervision the protocol of 1922,
above glanced at, was contaminated, to
examine the new agreement and decide
whether or no 1t traVerSeS that under
taking. Later M. BRAND issued state
ment to the same effect. An answering
communique was at once forthcoming
from the WilhelmStraSse to the effect
that "the accord is in keeping with both
the letter and the spirit of the Geneva
protocol, and in the opinion of the
reich government and the government
of Austria there is no occasion for the
council to occupy itself with the subject.
An examination Of the pact from the
political viewpoint is inadmiSsible, as 1t
is purely of an economic nature"
Observe that the arrangements to
date are only provisional, embodied in a
protocol for customs union"
So Germany is to have her second
pocket battleship," sister of the IA
nous Ersatz PreuSsen. On March 30
the Reichstag voted the equivalent of
$5,000,000 as the first of four INSTALL
mentS for its construction. The vote
furnished very severe test of the
benevolent neutrality of the Social
lists. One hundred and eighty members
of the middle parties voted ysa, 81 Com
munists and 8 Socialists voted nay,
while 134 Socialists refrained from vot-
ing. In return for the Socialists be-
Continued on Fourth Page.)