Evening star., 1933-01-02
Europe in 1888.

| Few reviews of 1882 or forecasts for
1888 hold out the prospect of happy
days" in the Old World, despite the
confidence with which devotees of the
new deal' await them on this side Of
the Atlantic. Europe, on the threshold
of another twelvemonth, presents the
picture of a house not only sorely
divided against itself, in the continental
sense, but of a seyies of nations torn
in many directions by internal strife
capable of leading to bloodshed and
revolution. Authorities like Mr.. Frank
H. SimondS seem convinced that exist
ing conditions cannot continue long
without producing both war and reVo-
luton. With her own interests SO in
dissolubly interlocked with those of
Europe, economically at least, America,
hard pressed as she may be by her own
problems, cannot afford to ignore those
beSetting her neighbors overseas.
International friction persists in most
menacing form between Germany and
Poland, on the one hand, and between
Italy and Yugoslavia, on the other. The
Polish Corridor imbroglio does not lose
in asperity with the passage Of time. A
state of virtual war exists in and about
the Corridor. Germany's resolution to
recover her lost eastern provinces re-
mains grim and infiexible; Poland's
determination to maintain the status
quo is no less firm. Passions anent the
fateful strip are so intense that q
spark in either country would perhaps
suffice to set ahght the powder barrel
of war. France is the ally Of Poland
and Czechoslovakia is allied to France;
the imagination does not have to travel
far to conjure up the nightmare Of an
other world conf1agration should the
fire start again in Central Europe.
To the south, Italy and Yugo-
slayia glare at each other across the
Adriatic. Bitterly at loggerheads since
the Fiume affair and other patchwork
at Versailles, new crop of incidents"
in Yugoslavia has famed Italian pas
sions afresh and extorted belligerent
admonitions from Mussolini. While
Rome rings with resentment of Yugo-
slavian "affronts," Belgrade charges
Italy with fomenting the racial ami
mosities between Croat and Serb for
the purpose Of undermining Yugo-
slayian unity. That an Italian-Yugo-
slavian conflict could hardly be 10
Called" Is obvious from the fact that
Francois in the case of Poland-is
an ally Of Yugoslayia, circumstance
which does not lessen the enduring
Franco-Italian strain.
Though various European countries
are rocked by domestic unrest, politi-
cal discomfort and economic distress,
the future in Germany and Russia is
Of the most menacing import. As to
the Reich, everything depends upon
whether in General Kurt Won Schleicher
another iron chancellor has been found.
With President Won Hindenburg at his
back, Won 'Schleicher's power is vir-
tually dictatorial How long he will
be able to defy the Reichstag, thwart
Hitler, ward of the Communists and
hold the republic against the monarch
lists only time can tell The militarist
chancellor, boasting Of his social
mindedness," has set as his goal the
economic betterment of Germany. If
General Won Schleicher can bring this
about, the Reich might follow him to
any lengths, even the restoration OF the
Hohenzollerns, for which some of his
detractors say he is actually plotting.
Russia's flye-year plan officially ended
with the close of 1882. Yesterday the
Soviet launched a second ambitious
project for the same number of years.
Foreign observers differ widely as to
the successes and failures achieved by
the initial enterprise, but the situation
is far less rosy than Moscow official
propagandists would have the outside
world think The food shortage is the
worst in decade, and the standard of
living for the bulk of the population
has dropped steadily since 1880. All
Russia is now under martial law, with
death as the penalty for large-scale
thefts. Industry as a whole is paralyzed
by the oppressive overhead of bu-
reaucracy The peasants are demoral-
lied and in sullen revolt against collec-
tive farming
| 1t is too carly to foreshadow the col
lapse Of the Soviet system or even its
serious breakdown. But the fact that
Stain and his coadjutors are having to
make progressively wider concessions to
Capitalism" especially in the field of