Evening star., 1932-09-11
TREND FAVORS REVIVAL
OFANCLO-FRENCH ENTENTE
German Threat, Which Led to War
Alliance, Has Operated to Unite Two
Nations Separated by Channel.

! IdCt, me- SIeIlCeQ bTlLlSl CTlUlCS Ol
French palicy effectively.
| In that Mutation the refusal of Ger
many to make even the sign of a rec
ognition Of French concessions. the re-
newal of the attack upon France in
the German press the immediate and
! formal demand that, having abandoned
reparations, France should now agree
! to German military equality, promptly
! reused British disapproval. Little by
| little Germany has been replacing
France in all British eyes as the OBJ
/ Stacle to European recovery and the
peril to world peace. British opinion
has, too, been Influenced by the grow
| ing perception that the chance OF
recovering the British funds frozen"
! in the Reich is small in the extreme.
American Element Has Part.
At the same time the American ele-
ment has played its part. The Hoover
disarmament proposal was equally dls-
! agreeable to Paris and to London be-
cause it similarly struck at the
security policy of each country. The
! British believe that the present size
| of their navy represents the minimum
! compatible with national security and
/ that, of course, is the French view OF
! their army. Moreover, the British also
recognize that as long as they demand
a two-poWer naval standard in the
| face of European fleets they cannot
Justly contest French demand for a
similar relative strength for their army.
Thus, while the British are willing to
discuss such questions as the reduction
In the size of capital ships and cruisers
and the caliber lei guns, as well as the
prohibition of submarines and bombing
planes, they are not ready to consider
mathematical reduction of their feet as
Hoover proposed Neither Macdonald
nor Herriot could remain in power II,
in the present state OF Europe, he
undertook to advocate the Hoover
program.
At the Arms Conference last Winter
I the British very significantly abandoned
all effort to press for reduction IN num-
bers and laid all their stress upon the
weapons of conflict. The British do not
fear French military force will be used
against them, they recognize the reality
of the dangers France faces beyond the
Rhine and the Alps and now that
France has met British ideas in the
matter of reparations the way Is clear
for cooperation between Paris and
London in all directions.
This evolution in Franco British re-
lationS is as unwelcome In Rome as in
Berlin. In fact, 1t explains in part the
sudden removal of Grandi as foreign
minister All italian policy is directed
at the isolation of France and particu-
! larly at the separation of France from
both of the Anglo-Saxon countries. As
long as both London and Washington
are cold to French proposals and dis
approving of French policy, Italy can
seek to force French concessions by
threatening a combination with Ger
many. &-
Once, however, London and Paris are
in accord an entente between Berlin
and Rome has no real threat for the
French and therefore no profit for Italy.
Then it is Italy and not France which
Is isolated. That, in fact, is what the
present situation amounts to. For on
the one hand, France mainains her sys-
tenn Of alliances, which includes
Poland, the Little Entente and Belgium,
and on the other she has drawn closer
to Britain.
italy, by contrast, has only Hungary
and Albania as real allies. And there
is not the making in present-day Eu-
rope Of any Italian combination which
can combat the French on equal terms.
| The Soviet Union is out of all political
! combinations save to protect its own in
! terests. 1t fears invasion now. rather
| than planning aggression. And the
Fascists in Italy and the Nationalist in
Germany are equally the prosecuting
enemies of their domestic Communists
who are the allies of the Bolshevists
And while the Italians would like tt
use the Germans against the French
they are themselves menaced by the
German purpose to bring about union
with Austria and must oppose this i'm
portant German project
Entente Foundations Exist.
All the foundations for a real entente
therefore exist. If, too, the Nationalist
reaction continues to gain in Germany
and by its foreign policies to menace
peace, real entente cordiale of the
pre-war sort can easily develop. AS long
as the British people saw France anc
her policies an obstacle to European
recovery such an association was i'm.
possible. But today Germany is the
danger and France has given al
Lausanne full measure of her pacific
purposes under a liberal rule.
For Americans this new evolution ha!
an importance because 1t insures thu
| CllCIh Va w 4OIIC ulodl
ment upon Europe. in the last day
of the Arms Conference Boncour anc
Simon stood together against Gibson
and the Hoover PROPOSE At Lausanne
similar cooperation - the matter o
war debts was clearly fo1sshadowed. I
was Russia, Italy and Germany which
supported the Hoover proposal, no
France and Britain. But in the matte
of debts Italy will be forced to follow
London, not Washington, because sh'
is a debtor to Britain as well a
America.
The recent categorical demand of tn,
Germans for the removal of the reStric
tions on their own armaments of tn
treaty of Versailles brings all theS
questions to head in a sensational
manner. The threat Of withdrawal from
the League which accompanies the de
mand must awaken grave apprehen
sions in Geneva, where Japanese de
lection and even Italian is also fore
shadowed. But at the same time
also promises new Anglo-French CO
! operation as it dooms all disarmament
hopes based upon the Hoover program
For on the one hand the French ar
totally unlikely to abandon their owl
armament5 in the face OF present Ger
man purpose and on the other the Brit
: ish are unlikely to back violent Ger
man policy bv Joining the United State
in urging the reduction OF Frencl
armaments