Evening star., 1931-04-05
EUROPE'S WAR FEAR EASED
BY FRANCOITALIAN PACT
Worried People of Frontier Trust That
Ways May Be Found to Clear Up
Tangle of Differences.

a French custom official on the lookout
for smugglers. AS for the mountains
themselves, they were to be climbed
only by the donkey paths, which have
existed unchanged for thousand years
or more.
Today by contrast either side of this
! frontier gives the impression of a war
area. From my hotel window looked
out on a French mountain. on the sum-
NIT of which, more than 4, 900 feet above
me, could see the long stretch of for
| tificationS. All these French mountains
have been cut and blasted to permit
magnificent military roads to reach the
SUBMITS and to make possible the con-
centration of artillery. On the lower
hills new wide pathways have been cut
to allow the passage of machine guns
and mountain pieces.
A day or two after arrival, coming
| down from a hill town almost directly
behind Monte Carlo, I was suddenly
startled by the familiar sounds, first of
volley firing of rifles and then the al
most forgotten tac-tac-tac of the ma
chine gun. Presently over the hills
came three companies of soldiers, who
had been drilling on the hills This
sound of rife and even of artillery fire
continued to be familiar daily expert
ence.
In recent years France has spent
millions in the creation of an impreg-
nable barrier covering Nice and the
| coastal line of possible invasion. Three
years ago at the moment of a particu-
larly acute war scare the whole region
was suddenly flooded with French
troops, sent against an expected irrup-
ton of Fascist militia, who were re-
ported planning to make a sudden raid
on Nice. This storm passed, but the
atmosphere remained. Even this year
the Winter visitors were warned against
wandering in the hills without pass
ports, counSeled to leave their walking
maps behind. and, above all, advised to
come promptly to g. standstiu when
challenged.
There was, then, always this striking
contrast. Along the shores in Nice,
Monte Carlo and Mentone the thousands
Of Winter visitors continued to live the
old familiar life of the Riviera. Society
played, gambled and luxuriated in the
sun, but over the whole brilliant picture
hung the shadow of war. Above the
casinos in the hills thousands of men
toiled at blasting and cutting new mill
tary roads. French warShipS came and
went from Villefranche, maneuvering
and doing artillery practice in plain
view, while daily the machine and rifle
firing on the hills reached the ears of
the audiences of the tennis matches.
For several years the whole French
Italian frontier on both sides, from
Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean, has
been on war footing. Now it seems
almost beyond question that for a GER
tain time at least the effect of the naval
agreement will be to abolish this at
moSphere. Today French and Italian
public men and newspapers are ex-
changing friendly greetings and mutually
rejoicing at the prospect of a return
OF better-eff4ssS is TO say, normal-rela-
lions. And one can almost hear the
sigh of relief going up from the unhappy
little peoples of all the towns and VII
lages in what has seemed bound to be
soon the field of next war"
Already, too, there are hints Of fresh
negotiations to dispose of the whole ugly
tangle of Franco-Italian differences.
problems of naturalization in Tunis
disputes over htnterlands in the Sahara.
an infinite and intricate series of DIFF
ferenceS, some real, some imaginary.
but all deriving their major Importance
from the clash of two national pres
tiges
Beyond this lies the possibility that
Fascism-for its own ends, to be sure
Will agree to join Italy with France
and Britain in a sort of general asso-
citation to adjust European matters and
abolish European dangers. Mussolini
certainly has now clear chance to
take the chair which has been vacant
ever since Stresemann died. Moreover.
Labor government in Britain and a
republican combination in France have
solid reasons for showing more friendly
attitudes toward Fascism. And in Brit
ain the arrival of Tory government
would make the process even easier.
In any event, while the eventual
combinations are endless and all sorts
OF exaggerations easy, the simple fact
Is that an agreement between France.
Italy and Britain, which happens to be
about naval issues, has contributed to
ease the general Continental situation
enormously. This agreement does not
foreshadow the reduction of the present
French or italian armies by so much
as company. 1t does no more than
postpone the construction of prospective
ships made impossible by hard times.
In so far as it is limitation, it is actu-
ally limitation of the dangers of the
use OF arms and ships, not of their
numbers. But the sigh of relief that
has greeted the agreement in Europe
generally is the most eloquent testimony
to the value of the bargain, as well as
to the reality Of the dangers it prom
ises to exercise, If not forever, at least
to the end Of EuropeS most trying post
war crisis.
(copyright, 1917