Evening star., 1932-03-27


clearing house of European pol
i itics, and from Paris, still the
political capital of the Conti-
nent, what is the present state of
Europe? OF course, there are many
sides, but definitely three of domi-
mating mportance-namely, political,
economic and social. Unmistakably,
the opinions and conditions now pre-
vailing will shape events for the bal
ance of the present year.
At the outset there is an interesting
contrast between the present moment
and the same date a year ago, when
the announcement Of the ill-Starred
AuStro-Germa tariff union precipi-
tated an upheaval which eliminated
politically in the Austro-German sur
render, and economically in series
of financial crashes not yet ended,
which reached their apex when Great
Britain abandoned the gold standard
and its most dramatic stage when
President Hoover proclaimed a mora
torium.
AS a consequence of the Austro-
German move, the whole Continent
last March was shaken by a po-
litical earthquake, presently leading
to a financial debacle. Paris, and
France as a whole, were seething
with apprehensions, passions and re-
ordinations hardly paralleled since
the end of the World War. Nor
was the situation in Berlin, Rome and
the capitals of the smaller Central
Eastern European states less agitated
Storm signals were showing in the
Niemen Channel.
Lassitude Gusts Passion.
Today, where there was passion now
Is lassitude; violent anger has given
way to emotional exhaustion-a mood
something like what followed the
earlier stages of the war, when the
hope of victory gave way to certain
fatalism. And for better or worse, as
one chooses to view it, this mood of
fatalism is universal as a controlling
circumstance. and is equally diScov-
cradle among the masses of peoples
and the statesmen who express their
real or imagined will abroad and at
home.
In present-day Europe no one ex-
poets the immediate conflict to become
catastrophe. The fires of last Spring
are strangely burned out, but on the
other hand. none of the issues which
produced the upheaval have been set
tled none of the n-nlcle--cs --!7=.:esa then
cried out for solution are now solved.
Europe is simply drifting, day by day.
The Disarmament Conference and the
Sino-JapaneSe affair were both Illus
trative of the tendency to do nothing
more than alphabetically simulate ac-
tivity by action when it is too late.
Looking at the political situation, it
is instantly manifest that the major
issue is that between France and Ger
many. The German thesis that the
price Of German participation in an or
-.
total revision of the postwar treaties,
financial, military and territorial, is re-
jected by all parties and all groups in
France. The French thesis that the
preservation of the status quo terri
torially, and in some measure the f1nan-
cial and military provisions of the
treaty of Versailles, is equally anath-
ema to every German.
Franco italian Situation.
II France and Germany are still
occupying positions which make effec-
tive, general cooperation impossible,
what can one say of Franco-Italian
relations which are of only slightly
less importance? Substantially the
same thing. Despite all recent rumors
of some sort of lesSening of tension
between Paris and Rome basically the
two great Latin states are divided on
all issues which concern DOth-name-
ly, naval, central European and Colo
NAL. This division is made the more
complete because, at Geneva, Italy
pretty deflnitively came down to the
German side in the treaty revision
issue.
AS to Anglo-French relations, these
remain the least obscure. Paris and
London have agreed to go to Lausanne,
but so far have not arrived at the
smallest agreement about the course
to be pursued there So far, too, what
Is most striking in all proposals is that
to most urgings for a restoration of
the old entente cordiale, made from
the French side of the Channel, Brit
ain remains markedly cold. The wave
OF Gallophobia, which reached its
height in England last Summer, has
not measurably abated. At the Dis
armament Conference British and
French theses remained as far apart
as ever.
Recognizing divisions between the
great powers must inevitably produce
similar divisions between the small, and
thus insure disunited Europe with, no
one can say, what economic and finan-
cial consequences. Just this may be
said today: There is no prospect of
any interruption in the progressive de-
generation Dr0duced nv tariff barriers