Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-12-03
EUROPE REEVES CONCERT
in ORDER TO PUT OFF WAR
Peace Held Impossible Dream-Private
Dealings by Statesmen are Urged
as Farley Substitute.

the program of woodrow Wilson and
adopted the practical if cynical real
politik of MuSsolini and Hitler. 1t Is
done with the whole conception Of
organizing world peace on a perma-
nent basis. 1t has turned its atten-
ton to a program Of preventing war
in the immediate present by tenn
porary expedients and emergency
measures.
No people in Europe today desires
war. So far agreement in principle
Is possible. No nation, on the other
hand. Is prepared to abandon policies
which must eventually lead 10 war.
That fact is also patent. Germany will
not resign her purpose to recover lands
which she lost and to bring German
minorities in several countries within
the Third Reich. France, Poland,
Czechoslovakia will not resign the lands
Germany wants. The deadlock is COM
plete and can only be broken by war.
League Near Disappearing.
The League was conceived as an Ia.
stitution to prevent war by bringing
about last adjustments of differences
between peoples. 1t has collapsed be
cause such adjustments are impossible.
1t is on the point of disappearance
its machinery is irrelevant to actual
conditions 1t is about to be replaced
by concert Of Europe which can and
will function precisely as long as all
Of its members are agreed In a desire
to postpone war.
To take a fairly recent example CT
the operation of this concert of En-
rope: In 1928 Russia and Austria
were irreconcilably divided over the
territorial adjustments to be made fol-
lowing the two Balkan wars. The issue
was whether Serbia should have en-
outlet on the Adriatic or not and Thess
the new frontiers of that state should
be drawn. But neither Austria, which
opposed nor Russia. which supported
Serbia, felt ready to risk war And Ger
many on the one hand and France on
the other were similarly unwilling to
waste manpower to support an ally in
Balkan quarrel.
AS a consequence it was possible
although difficult-to patch up a settle
ment. The Treaty Of Bucharest, While
it satisfied no one. represented a far
compromise between conflicting views
But year later, after the assassination
Of the archduke, the concert of Eu
rope broke up because, for Austria the
removal Of the Serbian threat now
seemed a matter of life or death, and
| for Russia the massacre of Serbia must
basis of accommodation which had ex-
! listed in 1913 having thus vanished,
Europe went to war in 1914.
But no one had ever seriously i'm
agined that the settlement of Bucha-
rest which postponed war in 1918 could
or would prove permanent. 1t was a
compromise pure and simple, which
left conflicting policies totally unmodi-
| fled. Now the whole philosophy of the
League was founded upon the aSsump-
| ton that at all times and under all
! fer compromise to conflict War was
to be abolished, not postponed. Peace
was to be organized on an enduring
! foundation, not preserved precariously
by temporary truce. And the same idea
was equally embodied in the once-fa-
nous and now forgotten Kellogg pact.
All of this means for the United
States that if it continues to NEEDLE
in European affairs it will have to
make alliances, undertake responsible
ties-in general. do in Europe as Eu-
ropeans do. On such a basis it will
be welcomed by all who hope to profit
by its aid and assailed by all who feel
its actions hostile TO their interests.
But it can have nothing useful to con-
| tribute to the organization of peace
because Europe has once and for all
discarded that whole idea. America
in Europe now must act and be con-
sidered as a prospective belligerent. 1t
can only be neutral at home.
Peace Impossible Dream.
In my judgment, for whatever that
may be worth. Europe is not now on
the threshold of a next war. We can
| have one year or 10 years without new
hoStilities. On the other hand peace in
Europe in the American sense is now
an impossible dream. Some day. sooner
or later. the nations which are re-
solved to upset the territorial decisions
| of the peace treaties will feel strong
enough to try, or the nations deter
mined to maintain these decisions will
! become satisfied it is futile to wait
until their temporary superiority in
ornaments vanishes before engaging
in a war become inevitable. Then
they will strike.
But from the American point of view
what is essential is a recognition CT
the fact that the Wilson dream is over
that the League is dead, that Europe
has gone back to European methods
and that these methods, while they
| have Suf1ced to avoid wars that no
nation wanted at the moment, have in
the end always broken down as a con-
sequence of persistent pursuit of OBJ
jectives which could only be achieved
! by conflict. What the United States
today faces abroad is not a new Eu-
rope, shaped by Hitler'S revolution,
but an old Europe. which Wilson failed
| to AmericaniZe and Hitler disclosed u:
| its true character
In such a Europe, too, disarmament
is fantastic dream. So, also. is the
hope of keeping Germany disarmed
while other nations retain their weap-
ons. But since the armed nations are
not at the moment in the mood to
use their ornaments to impose dis
armament on the Reich, Hitler will
proceed to progressive rearmament and
in due course the armed nations will
feel compelled to increase their own
material Of war. Then the Old World
will be back physically in the pre-war
era of 1905-l4 Psychologically, how
ever, Europe is already there. while in
America the Wilsonian illusion still
fingers dangerously.
Copyright, 1881
|