Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
New Geneva Peace Pledge
Is Lacking in Securities
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, January 24.-Foreign Sec
rotary Henderson's blunt speech to the
League of Nations Council this week
struck new and much-needed note at
Geneva.
The Council then solemnly passed a
resolution denouncing the irresponsible
talk in various quarters concerning the
possibility OF an international war,
pointing out the evil results of this in
aggravating the economic depression in
Europe and declaring in the names of
the 81 subscribing statesmen a collec-
tive assurance of European peace and
resolute determination to use the ma
chinery of the League to prevent any
resort to violence.
This is an excellent affirmation. But
why was it necessary? Have not all the
signatory powers already signed the
covenant of the League forbidding war
and the Kellogg pact outlawing war,
not to speak of the Locarno treaty
guaranteeing the peace of the Rhine
land?
If these assurances are not sufficient,
it is not likely that the hastily drafted
resolution at Geneva will restore con-
f1dence. The fact is that the irresponsi-
BILE talk which the Council condemns
is due to the failure Of the great pow
ers to do anything to clothe their pious
words in deeds. This was the burden of
Henderson's formidable indictment.
Europe in particular and the world
in general are economically Stagnant
and politically disturbed chiefly because
confidence, on which alone prosperity
can be founded, is entirely absent from
international relations. Henderson said
that the only effective way of making
an end to war talk is for the nations
to carry out honestly and speedily the
policy of collective disarmament, to
which all the League governments are
pledged. So far as Great Britain is
concerned, she acknowledges no alli-
ances except the covenant of the
League and the Kellogg pact, nor recog-
nizes any as friends who refuse to carry
the cause of disarmament to victory.
X X X X
The talk of imminent war, which is
so prevalent on the continent, is fren-
zied and nischievous, but the talk is
Ineligible enough, in view of the facts,
and Henderson puts his finger on the
root of the trouble in denouncing the
failure to disarm in fulfillment of the
Versailles treaty provisions. 1t is pre-
poSterous to suppose that Germany will
permanently accept the monstrous sit
her frontiers are briStling with foreign
bayonets.
Aristide BRAND is sensible enough
and good European enough to under
stand the peril of such an attempt to
imprison a nation, but why does he not
tell France boldly that the nonsense
must end, even though he perishes in
the enterprise? He affixed his sigma
ture with the rest to the Councils peace
x,Jn I.,,k
directed not against irresponsible scare
mongers, but against the nations whose
obstinate policy makes scaremongers
inevitable.
X X X X
The irony of the situation is illus
trated by what happened Thursday.
While the League Council at Geneva
was trying to fix a date for that elusive
disarmament conference which has been
imminent for years, and while the 81
foreign ministers were signing the pledge
of European peace, the government of
Belgium, which was a Signatory of this
pledge, was engaged in introducing vast
estimates for continuing the French
Notifications along the Belgo-German
frontier.
This is a part of the fruits Of the
Franco-B Belgian alliance formed after
the war against Germany, and yet both
Belgium and France are signatories c:
the League covenant and the Kellogg
pact and have a further guarantee
under the Locarno treaty. Is it to be
assumed that neither the covenant nor
the treaty is worth the paper it is writ
ten on?
\ X X X i.
The truth, as the Manchester Guard
ian observes, Is that the European
countries are trying to live in two in
consistent worlds. They are seeking
peace officially through such construc-
tive measures as the League covenant,
the Locarno treaty and the Kellogg
pact, but at the same time are refusing
TO give up their belief in guns.
While this practical reputation of
the policy of pacification continues, the
return of confidence is prevented and
the political and economic reconstruc-
lion of Europe is impossible. But why
complain of irresponsible talk when
European craftsmanship is piling up
mountains Of explosive material2
(Copyright. 1871 =.