Evening star., 1932-03-13
CHALLENGE OF JAPANESE
ENDS DREAM OF LEAGUE
Drama Of Far East Expected to Have
Decisive Result Upon World
Ideals Visioned by Wilson.

! phatic incitation to restore their mill
| tary and naval establishments Japan
! in an unmistakable manner has Shang-
| haied both the League and the Dis
armament Conference. Here in Europe
small nations, notably those which were
neutral in the last war-Switzerland,
the Scandinavian states, Holland-ap-
preciated the disaster, and the Assembly
made a final stand to save the moral
authority of the League.
The effort, however, has viSably and
definitely failed, and now already the
process Of revaluation has begun. Ger
tain values obviously remain. Geneva
thinks the League a nice place where
statesmen can meet with the machinery
of the League available whenever states
men agree. Geneva continues con-
vention city and the League clearing
house. That is what is left of the
grandoise Wilson dream now that ia
pan has put it to the test.
League to Be Disarmed.
Ironically enough, not Europe but the
League will emerge disarmed from the
present conference. Unable to keep
peace in Asia, unable to restore it in
Europe. Thus the Disarmament Con-
ference which was to promote peace
struggle between the status quo pow
ers seeking to achieve unilateral Sc
curity revision and states striving to
impose unilateral disarmament Geneva
which was to be the capital of united
Europe, Is now the battle-ground of a
divided continent. Underneath the
cover of an outward tranquility states
men are taking positions for the re-
sumption of a conflict which has never
ended actually since 1914.
The war in the Far East and the
Disarmament Conference at Geneva
together have demonstrated how far
hopes outran the realities and how
little public opinion within countries
where world opinion is large can in
fluence any nation in its foreign poll
cies, or prevail upon them to moderate
domestic policies concerning arma-
ments Europe will not disarm, nor
Japan desist from its imperialistic pur-
poses, but the League, which cannot
promote disarmament nor prevent ag-
gression, sinks patiently to the level OF
a bureau with importance as a piece
of machinery available to serve
peaceful world, but futile on a divided
planet.
! Already the lesson is penetrating as
one discovers by considering the size
of the military and naval budgets now
being adopted on this side Of the
Atlantic and by examining the COM
ment which accompanies them. Peace
BY pacts," the slogan which found so
wide an approval, is giving way to the
old doctrine of preparedness every
where; the whole Wilsonian gospel is
in full retreat all over Europe. AS the
crisis of Agadir, following quickly upon
The Hague Conference of 1907. dissi-
pated the idealistic dreams which we're
momentarily cherished following the
Cars proposals, so the Japanese war,
coming after. the ceremonies of signing
the Kellogg pact, has produced the
same revulsion.
DisilIusionment Grows.
1t is difficult to translate to the
American audience the degree Of disil-
which the collapse of the League in
! the Sino-Japanese affair mas produced
everywhere among men and women
of the European countries who con-
sistently, even confidently, saw in
Geneva an alternative to the old sys-
tenn of international relations But not
less important is it to make clear that
disillusionment has taken place. Such
voices as Cecil's and Gilbert Murray's
have become almost hysterical, but the
ruin of their hopes and calculations is
patent.
Thirteen years ago I was present at
the session in the famous cloak room
of the Quai d'Orsay when Woodrow
Wilson, the great figure Of the Peace
Conference, moved the adoption of the
Covenant of the League of Nations.
For him it was manifest that this
seemed the supreme day of his life; as
it turned out it was his last moment
of triumph Oddly enough, even then
the one great question mark in all
minds was whether Baron Maxine, the
japanese representative. would make
hostile motion based upon the jap
anese exclusion laws of America.
Now, after all the years during
which the Wilsonian conceptions have
exercised a potent and for a time even
a commanding influence, 1t is plain
that his League of Nations has reached
dead low water mark No comment
is more frequently heard here than the
speculations as to how rehabilitation
may take place on more modest and
realistic bases But meantime there
remains the problem presented by the
inevitable and imminent Franco-Ger-
man clash, with further destructive
possibilities which cannot be exag-
gerated.
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