Evening star., 1932-10-02
LEAGUE ASSEMBLY HITS
LOWEST POINT in CAREER
Best That Can Be Expected at Present
Session Is Fight to Survive Against
Threats by Reich and Japan.

Last Winter at Geneva. BeneS, For
eign Minister of Czecho- -Slovakia ana
the most experienced in Geneva affairs
of all European statesmen. said to me !,
AT the moment we can do nothing but
try to hold out. All that is possible
now for the league is to survive this
storm and then to resume building"
Nothing has changed materially in the
situation since. The best that can now
be expected is to endeayor to protect
the Les que as far as possible from the
effects OF the gravest crisis in its his
tory.
For what has actually happened in
the past two years has been the break
down OF the whole League conception Of
organized peace. Inherent in this con-
ception was the faith in moral forces
which could be mobilized and would
avail to restrain aggression. Wisely or
unWisely, however, the League accepted
the Manchurian affair as test uues-
ton. 1t invoked all the resources of
the covenant and the United States en-
ployed the Kellogg Pact as bridge to
permit its cooperation with the League
But so far from preventing Japanese
aggression. foreign opposition only
served to exaSperate japanese national
ism and the results are no longer to be
mistaken
1t is, too, a present possibility that
japan NAV withdraw from the League
over the Manchurian affair, and Ger
many because of the failure of the
League arms conference to satisfy her
demands for equality. Again there
have been many ominous signs from
Rome in the past II months that Italy
was awaiting a favorable moment to
retire from an association which it has
accepted without enthusiasm and en-
ployed for purely nationalistic ends.
In the long run the fortunes of the
League at least for the next few years,
will probably be determined by the out
come of the Arms Conference. If some
sort of relatively meaningless agreement
can be patched up which all powers, in
cluding Germany, Italy, and the Soviet
Union will sign. the contemporary
crisis may be surmounted and con-
sideration of vital questions postponed
until a more favorable moment.
On the other hand, If Germany per-
slsts in her present course and con-
tinues to issue peremptory challenges
such as provoked sharp rebuke on the
recent British note. then it is hardly to
be doubted that the League will be
pushed into the background and its
place will more or less completely be
occupied by an Anglo French combina-
ton to which will rally not only the
allies Of France but the neutrals of
the last war who, like the French and
British, are eager to avoid new con-
f1ict.
Unpopular in Britain.
Such combination, while welcomed
by France. would be excessively un-
popular in Britain. which will seek with
all possible energy to preserve the
League at least as symbol and thus
to avoid the unmistakable relapse to
the pre-war situation of rival groups of
powers. But German internal condi-
tions are such that German rulers,
willingly or unwillingly. seem bound to
use foreign affairs as the sole means of
escaping domestic disaster and thus to
continue to make gestures at once dis
turbing to the world and fatal to Ger
man interests
AS long as Herriot remains in power
in France and continues to follow the
present course of moderation and pa
tlence. he is assured of British support
and Of the active assistance of Mac |
Donald in any crisis provoked by Ger
man intransigeance. But a long con-
tlnued German campaign of violent
proclamationS must in the end awaken
French Nationalists and weaken Her.
riots domestic situation And there are
already signs that the course of Papen
and Schleicher has produced significant
repercussions in France.
All of which shows how far the pres
ent situation in Europe has escaped the |
limits and influence of the League OF
Nations. In tact last Winter nothing
was more striking than the despair of
the League officials themselves in the
face of events alike in Europe and in
Asia The United States. absorbed in
its domestic problems and occupied by
the presidential election has viewed the
latest European crisis with detachment
and a degree of calmness not discov-
cradle in Europe
But on the Continent. at least, the |
conviction has steadily developed that
this present crisis may see Geneva |
eliminated for a long time as a real
force in international relations And
1t is under the shadow of this grim |
prospect, with events alike in Japan and |
Germany still confirming earlier i'm
pressions. that the Assembly of the |
League must undertake to restore the
prestige of the Geneva institution.