Evening star., 1932-05-01
PAUL-BONCOUR PROPOSES
EUROPEAN FATHERLAND'
Wrecked by War, Nations Must Rebuild
On New Order to Expect Americas
Aid, He Asserts.

| was referred to the meeting of the
| Council. And, since-although France
| had hoped for 1.-THE great powers have
failed to agree to come to their aid, is
it not now the business Of those imme-
diately concerned to see to their own
| needs?
Not that they can dispense with the
Capital of the great countries or with
preferential tariff treatment from them
| or do without their trade. But If they
began by agreeing among themselves
! to form the projected economic and
| customs union, which. once there, would
certainly have to be reckoned with,
much opposition would lose its force,
many problems would be solved, and
what eagernesS to aid might suddenly
! become manifest among those who so
! far have opposed or put off action in
view of the weakness of the Danubians,
whose rivalrieS they hope to exploit
| In the days when Italy was still
dismembered, broken up into rival
states which, being insufficient to them
selves, appealed for the help of the
| foreigner, who then installed himself
in their territories there was an Ital
ian statesman, one of the greatest OF
the nineteenth century, who uttered
| these simple words, so charged with
meaning: Italy will manage herself"
Italy did as Cavour had told her to do,
and today she Is a great country, with
which all others must reckon.
I agree that in Italy there was a
common language, common memories,
demand for common frontiers deter
mined by nature and by history-in
brief, there was fatherland.
Urges European FatherIand.
Now We have to build up the Euro
pean fatherland. And that 1t may be
we'll built the foundations must be laid,
in the first place. by bringing into more
cloSely-knit groups, states which are
| politically divided but whose geograph-
| ical situation imposes upon them a
common economic system within the
| bounds of their reciprocal political
| freedom
| The economic developments of today
have created among the nations an
interdependence which was accentuated
as a consequence of the war This
| growth of interdependence has become
| more evident as result of the shifting
of certain frontiers in conformity with
the right of peoples to dispose of them
! selves-a right which America inscribed
above the peace treaties, but which does
not do away with the necessity of re-
| storing economic relations and COM
mercial exchanges between the peoples
who were long held together against
their will within common frontiers
which have ceased to exist.
IL is absurd and sin against the
conscience of peoples to say that Aus
tr1a-Hungary should have been pre-
| served, that Poland and Czechoslovakia
ought not to have been resuscitated,
that Rumanian Pennsylvania should
not have been returned to Rumania,
and that the Serb nationality, which
was cruc1fied by the war. and against
which the war was first launched, had
not the right to live.
Their autonomy once reconquered,
however, it was and still is needful for
these states to reconStitute in the way
OF free agreements something which
from the economic point of view shall
take the place of the former larger
groupings. These. although established
in the course Of history by conquest
and by force, had through their very
existence brought about certain con-
ditions of production, of transport and
OF trade which could not be brusquely
modified or suppressed.
Europe, wrecked by war, must re-
build upon new order. In the first
place she must count upon herself.
Especially necessary is it that the
small powers whose disordered condi-
ton has repercussions throughout Eu-
rope and is nourished by the rivalries
OF the great powers, should count upon
themselves and agree among them
selves.
And if amcng them there are some
who, in obedience to certain influences.
hamper that salutary action, let those
who can come to agreement begin by
doing so between themselves. The
others will be obliged to come in as
soon as coherent bloc exercising its
natural force of attraction has come
into existence
So far the question is one of ma
tonal econmy, debts and reparations.
L say the same thing when I come to
speak Of security Instead Of waiting
for the organization of world security,
which we know can never be assured
unless and until America takes part
IN lt-for that very reason and to win
her to participation and hasten the
realization of cur friendly wish-let us
help ourselves
Let us first establish an organization
OF security in Europe. And in Europe
let those who think this should be
done set about doing it, The others
will follow suit The lowering of ex-
penditure, the reduction of armaments
which would result from it, would be
the best arguments to convince those
who do not yet believe
Copyright, 1922