Evening star., 1933-11-26

lem with which European statesman
ship has to deal.
Germany is no longer a supplicant
waiting for the grace of the powers.
She is erect and not a little defiant,
claiming the status of an equal, not
as an act OF grace, but as right about
which she will not bargain She isn't
on her knees to the powers. 1t would
be much more true to say that the
powers are on their knees to her. Wit
ness the thrice repeated appeals of Mr..
Macdonald to her to resume her place
at the Disarmament Conference and
the League table. In the Virginian
phrase. Hitler has upset the "treacle
jug" and now that it is upset the pow
ers are finding that the task Of Clean
ing up the mess is theirs rather than
his
That the drastic change in the dis
armament plan was a devastating mis-
take is now plain to everybody. That
plan, introduced to the conference by
the British delegation in March, was
accepted by all of the powers in June
as providing fair basis for the pro-
posed convention. 1t aimed at imple-
menting the principle of equality of
STATUS WlIilll peTlOO OF IlNe years
In lengthenlng the period to eight
years, during the first four probation"
years Of which Germany would not
rearm and the other powers would not
disarm, the conference laid itself open
to the charge that it had gone back on
its word.
No doubt the menacing growth of
militariSm in Germany and the evi-
dence that she was rearming were cal
culated to give France a cold fit and
to make her inSistent on a more cau-
tious policy, but Hitler was in the saddle
in March when the British plan was
brought in and the enormities of the
Nazi dictatorship were fully revealed in
June when the plan was indorSed
Nothing had happened between June
and October to. justify the withdrawal
of the original scheme.
The effect of that withdrawal has
been tWofold. both bad from the point
of view of those who engineered it. The
new concert of Europe is in dis
integration and Hitler has been given
a triumph which has wiped out in
burst OF acclamation all the hOStilities
to his dictatorship, and has made him
on the crucial issue the mouthpiece of
would have been undreamed of a couple
of months ago.
And now, what are the powers to do
about it? If Hitler has integrated Ger
many, he has no less disintegrated
Europe. The British government is
being assailed in Parliament for having
yielded to French pressure. Italy, al
ways an uncertain quantity, is engaging
in conversations with Germany. and is
indisposed to go forward at Geneva in
the absence of that power. Hungary
says ditto to Italy.
X *
1t is obvious that, in view of the
strong strategic position in which Ger
based on the revised terms of october
would be fruitleSs, 1t would be re-
jected by Germany and would in
definitely postpone any prospect of her
return to the councils of Europe. In
word. it would widen the breach in
Europe rather than heal it, and the
mobilization of the continent into two
camps and frank plunge into a race
Of competitive ornaments. 1t is an
open secret that the race is already in
progress, not in one country alone, but
in all.
Can the conference. when 1t finally
meets, achieve miracle and stop that
race before it has stampeded out of con-
troll? 1t may. on one condition-that it
recants the recantation of October and
agrees upon convention based on the
original plan of March-June. That plan
was agreeable to Germany then, and
if Hitler's aSseverations of peace are
sincere. it should be acceptable to her
now If it is, then European recon-
ciliation may yet be accomplished. If
it is not, then the crime of sabotaging
the Disarmament Conference will be
Germany's. At present. she can fairly
claim that she Is not tn criminal and
that the powers are.
Copyright, 1887