Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-18
BY FRANK H. SIMoNDS.

| ILldI IL Will NC dDlC W llOtQ OuG
! until Spring, when an improvement in
economic conditions will perhaps ar
rive, what has the world to expect of
| Germany thereafter? Is the present
crisis economic or has the economic
crisis merely served to bring to the sur
face forces and factors which have
long been workingP
The latter is, think, the case. What
| has happened in Germany in recent
months has been the disclosure of GER
tain fundamental decisions of the Ger
| man people, not FaScistS, not super
nationalist, but Of the people of all
political parties and Of every social
| stage. In three respects the whole Ger
man people have broken definitely with
the recent past. They have come to a
! decision on three vital issues. And on
the attitude Of the outside world toward
this decision will depend the question,
if not Immediately of peace or war, at
the very least of any solid organization
of European order.
Once for all, the German people have
resolved that they will not pay repara-
tons; that they will not remain dis
armed in a Europe that continues to
fortify its frontiers and reinforce its
| armies; that they will not permanently
accept the present Polish frontier. The
question raised here Is not whether as
q matter Of right these German deci-
sions are to be praised or blamed, rec
ognized to be reasonable or rejected as
improper. The single fact is that they
represent the fixed will of a people Of
sixty millions.
Capacity to Pay Question.
AS to the question of reparations, it
has long been discussed from the point
of view of the capacity of Germany to
pay. But the true point of departure
must hereafter be the ability of any
German government to make its own
people pay, or, in the second stage, the
willingness of any creditor nations to
unite in q new occupation of German
territory to enforce payment.
| AS to the question OF German gov
ernments, any government must in the
end live by a majority coming from the
people. The German people are now
suffering acute economic distress, men
and women are on the point Of starva-
ton, four millions are unemployed, and
at the same moment all see millions OF
dollars being transferred from this suf-
fering Germany to France that is pros
porous, that is devoting these millions
to new war expenses.
German finance knows that up to
date all that Germany has paid in
reparations has been the result of bor-
rowings abroad, mainly in America. 1t
| kIlOHS lIIdI W IGs.dSC WHINING SdPAL<1A
CT the nation, destroyed by the war and
imitation, somewhere between five and
ten billions of dollars must be borrowed
on long-term conditions. And 1t is
aware that such borrowings are impoS-
sible and that in addition there must
be endless borrowings for reparations.
Business and finance are concerned
with economic aspects, but the politl-
cal aspects are What count; Tor the
whole people see in PREPARATIONS a Sys-
TEN of political tribute levied for two
generations and designed to prevent
German recovery, to impose misery and
suffering for half century. And in
the revolt Of youth, in the spread ana
fury of Fascism, nothing counts SO
much as this reparations detail. AS
psychological factor in fortifying the
Fascist sweep it cannot be exaggerated.
The charge that the government is
selling us out to foreigners" awakens
echoes in the minds and hearts of mil
lions. 1t, is charge against which no
government can permanently maintain
itself.
Moratorium In Prospect.
Some time in the next weeks, then,
Germany will ask-or rather announce
"a moratorium, but the payments thus
| postponed are but a small part OF the
total, and relief will be slow to come
! and inconSiderable. 1t will satisfy no
one, and it can only be the prelude to
still greater suspensions, the end, and
the early end. of which must be the
cessation of payments altogether-not
of payments on private borrowings. not
on postwar obligations, American or
| otherwise, but on reparationS. Germany
won't pay, that's the long and short OF
it. And Germany will not permit any
| government to stay in power that ac-
ceptS the role of debt collector for
other countries in the domestic field.
| AS to disarmament, the situation Is
similar. Today nearer to Berlin than
Hartford is to New York or Richmond
| to Washington are two national from
tiers manned by armies numerically
superior to the German, namely, the
Polish and the Czechoslovakian, which,
! in combination with a third, the
French, would march against Germany
in any war involving France and Ger
many And all of Germany in the west,
from Switzerland to Holland, is unforti-
fed, defenseleSs. open to invasion. The
sense of helpleSSness, the feeling OF de-
fenselessness has as a consequence be-
come something like a monomania in
the German mind.
| For a certain time German public
| opinion was held in check by assurances
that the League of Nations, through
disarmament conferences, would bring
about the lowering of French, Czech,
Polish and Italian armies to the Ger
man level. That hope has passed.
Geneva has become bitter joke. Agi-
| tation for withdrawal from the League
is gaining ground all the time. II IN
January the League does not decide to
| hold a conference soon, and that con-
ference does not give Germany equality
with France in means and rights of de-
fhon will consider the
restrictions put upon her by the treaty
of Versailles as henceforth null and
void She will proceed to arm within
the limits Of her financial resources.
Voice Of German Pacifism.
When Count Bernstorff, much to the
| diSpleasure of Lord Cecil, announced
that for Germany the next arms con-
| ference at Geneva was the last chance,
he spoke as the voice not of German
militarism but of German pacifism. 1t
was a despairing, not threatening,
voice. 1t was the voice OF genuine
| champion of disarmament who saw In
the very rising tide of his own public
sentiment the sure promise Of a return
to the old pre-War conditions, to
fresh competition in arms all over the
Continent, unless the neighbors of Ger
many were prepared to reduce their
armaments to German level.
Last OF all, Cnere is the question OF
the revision of the peace treaties. which
means the abolition of the Polish Cor
ridor. Here, again, one faces the phe-
nomenon of the resolve of q whole
people. It is impossible to discuss the
question of the Polish Corridor objec-
lively in Germany as a question involv-
ing the rights of two races, with his
torical, ethnic and economic sides.
Naturally the existence of these sides
is conceded. But IN the end one comes
down to the simple statement. 1T can
incG cn:;ure." Libcr3f Germany, rcac-
tionary Germany, Fascist, Nationalist,