Evening star., 1932-05-22
PEACE OF PERMANENCE
HELD PRESENT PROBLEM
Former German Foreign Minister Out
lines Difficulties Following Elec-
tiOns i'm Chief Countries.

in the German people by 13 years
operation of the Versailles treaty. The
reaction" was bound to follow.
Fifteen years ago the worlds might
lest statesman warned against just sucf
& development. President Wilson sale
of the peace that it should be the goa
of war.
1T must be a peace without victory,
he proclaimed. Victory would mean
peace forced upon the loser, a victor's
terms imposed upon the vanquished. II
would be accepted in humiliation, under
duress, at an intolerable sacrifice and
would leave sting, resentment, a
bitter memory, upon which terms OF
peace would rest, not permanently, but
cnly as upon quicksand.
only a peace between equals can
last; only peace the very principle OF
which is equality. Any peace which does
not recognize and accept this principle
| will inevitably be upset. It will not rest
upon the affections or the convictions
of mankind. The ferment of spirit of
whole populations will fight subtly and
constantly against 1t, and all the world
will sympathize. The world can be at
peace only If there is a sense of justice
and freedom"
Warning Was in Vain.
To the great misfortune of us all, this
warning, springing from deep and
statesmanlike insight, was in vain.
1.-THE Paris peace dictates have Gre
ated new European map, but not a
new healthy Europe Out Of the fate
full mixture of conqueror's pride and
economic short-sightednesS a Europe
has arisen in whose ledger has been
entered, as an unredeemable mortgage,
the moral, political and economic dis
qualification of the losers and the
hegemony of the conquerors; a Europe
foregoing every thought of healthy de-
velopment, desirous of establishing for
all time the dictatorially- status
quo.
This unfortunate structure, Yer
sallles-Europe, which has narrow
mindedly shut out all possibility Of
war policy. from which the struggling
suffering ups and downs of the last II
years have logically developed. 1t is
the via dolorosa for Germany; it Is
a false way for all Europe"
This was said not by National So
cialist, but by DR.. Bruening, the leader
of the party which has shared RESPONSE
bility for German policy since the end
of the war. 1t Is Bruening who has
brought the influence of a Christian
conscience to bear upon international
politics
OF course, during the postwar period,
there have been certain endeavors to
set up new, joint European life. Ger
many has done her part. But these
embryo attempts have all been stified
by the rigid clutch of Versailles.
Sir Austen Chamberlain knows the
disappointing results Of that courageous
start toward European understanding
which German peace policy, undaunted
by the Ruhr invasion, undertook at
Locarno. Jocarno was the voluntary
remuneration of all retaliation for in
justices suffered, the voluntary accept
ance of the western frontier as dictated
at Versailles, the spontaneous readiness
to replace century-old differences by
Franco-German peace.
Saar Still Held.
But the results of Locarnol were that
the Rhineland had to suffer five years
more under French military domination.
Germany's entrance into the League Of
Nations changed nothing. Not until
1880 was the freedom of the Rhine pur-
chased, with bitterest financial sacri-
fees The Saar territory still remains
QAl0Cl lOlCASA
Let no one be deceived. These words
are not the whisperings of a post
Stresemann period. Stresemann him
self thought and felt exactly the same
way. Both in private and In public he
repeatedly gave expression to his sem
timents.
This year, on Stresemann's birthday,
May 10, I visited his grave. l asked
myself how Stresemann would speak
and act today. I am convinced that in
the great international questions of the
present-disarmamen reparations, eco
nomic organization of Europe-he would
pursue the same line as his successors.
And most assuredly he would deplore
the failure of the international confer
ences with the same bitter emphasis as
DR.. Bruening.
His warning, too, would be as solemn
as DR. Bruening's: do you not see that
from the graves of the nations dead
hopes demoniacal spirits of negation and
destruction arise? From the inwardly
untrue, unnatural conception of peace
universal disaster has come. Unless a
change takes place the world will sink
even deeper into the untold misery
which under the names Of economic
crisis and unemployment threatens to
scourge all civilized countries"
I do not wish to be misunderstood.
Nothing lies farther from me than to
conjure Stresemanns spirit or to cite
Bruening's words in order to threaten.
I have set forth the opportunities which
at the close of the election campaigns
in England, Germany and France, and
later, in America, present themselves to
the statesmen now freed from the CO.
ercion of election tactics. 1t is my duty
also to point to the dangers which will
arise If the time is not properly utilized
if that creative and constructive policy
of reform SO urgently necessary for Eu-
ropes welfare is not finally adopted
May all responsible statesmen realize
to the full that the one issue actually
at stake and governing all single prob
lens is this: Is Europe at last going
TO follow Chancellor Bruening's moving
appeal to finish that interregnum be-
tween war and peace in which we are
still living, and to set up peace which
is not dictated peace, but, as Presi-
dent Wilson dreamed, "a peace with
healing in its wings?"
hv North Apoar{nan