Evening star., 1933-11-12
STATUS OF SMALL NATIONS
is VITAL FACTOR In ARMS
Hope Said to Lie in Ability to Win Ger.
many Over to Mode of Peace That
Would Not Infringe on Them.

that end. to make her part with the
Polish alliance and with the Little
Entente" connection. But, owing to the
reversal of public opinion in England
and to the patient work of French
diplomacy, which succeeded. little by
| little. in having the original draft.
drastically amended, nothing has been
| left, so far as the text goes, of Mr.
Mussolini's intentions, and it cannot be
said that France, as signatory Of the
document, has bound herself to accept
the ideas of the Italian dictator or of
the British prime minister as regards
disarmament or the remaking of the
European map.
Frances Position Impaired.
Indeed, few days before Hitler took
his great initiative the French govern
| ment did not even hesitate to let the
/ Rome government know that, were the
Disarmament Conference to fall, France
would not agree to the issue of dis
| armament being taken up and dis
cussed by the four powers, as provided
Tor In ArtiNle 8 Of the pact, under the
pretext that the act of ratification has
not yet passed the French Parliament.
OF course, the conclusion of the four
power pact nevertheless has impaired
the position of France, because its eff
kcCb HAS DG6u 10 lOOScu ETdnCe DODQ
with Poland and the Little Entente"
and because French representatives GER
tainly will be put to certain psyche
logical disadvantage whenever, instead
of negotiating on the Geneva forum,
with the help of an important retinue
of associates, they viii have to closet
themselves with British, Italian and
German delegates, among whom, In
many junctures. they will feel more or
eSs asoiafed n What But IA as ser,n on
october IA, it is open to the French
ministers finally to retrace their steps.
Because 1t rashly recalled its delegation
from the Geneva Conference, the Ger
man government can be charged with
having infringed upon its commit
ments under Article 3 Of the four
power pact, which binds its signatories
to do their best to make a success OF
disarmament.
Frances Lone Idea.
After all, why did France accept the
pact on June Is? Was It because she
regarded it as likely to bring, by itself,
10 years of rest to the European con-
tinent? BY no means. A single idea
ruled her mind; satisfaction OF pres
tige would be given to Mussolini and,
having pocketed that cash, he might
perhaps be more easily detached from
his association with the Germanio
cause or, alternately, would use his in
| f1uence over the brown dictator SO as
to make him swerve from his wariiks
designs.
The latest developments in Berlin
have probably made short work OF the
four-pow pact; indeed, in the eyes OF
France, either Mussolini did not play
the game in the German capital or he
lost it. am inclined to think that
Mussolini's influence over German
Hitlerism has been on the wane con.
tinuously since last March. The fol-
lowing little story tells its tale. The
italian Ambassador In Germany, Signor
Cerutti, is married to Hungarian
JeweSS, who, despite diplomatic priv
ileges, has had to put up with sundry
insults. It is very striking fact that
the Ambassador never dared to ask Tor
amends.
Assuming that the four-power pact
disappears from the picture, France
may be found ready to enter a diplo-
matte conference. but it will be a
kind-that is, free from every previous
pledge-which cannot lead very far
Force Necessary.
How, then, can European peace be
saved? We don't want to give up the
endeavor, but no well defined and fair
ly hopeful line of action can be de-
tected. First, as to disarmament.
From beginning to end the conference
on disarmament has laborfd under the
following difficulty: On the one hand,
every one is convinced that the present
territorial structure of europe can be
maintained only If propped up by su-
perior physical force. On the other
hand, no plan of agreed disarmament
can succeed that does not shift q GER
tain amount of military power from
the victorious nations in the late war
to the vanquished.
On the strength Of those two un-
challengeable postulates, 1t can be said
that no approach can be made toward
solution of the disarmament prob
lem unless a revision Of the territorial
clauses in the peace treaties, accept
able to the vanquiShed states, Is car
ried out as an initial measure or alter
natively, unless an omnipotent inter-
national authority is created with a
view to keeping at peace, even by the
use of force, all contending parties.
Well, neither of those preliminary
conditions can be fulfilled in todays
Europe. To raise in all earnestness the
issue Of territorial revision might per-
haps mean instant war and, as to the
creation of an omnipotent interna-
tional authority, the French were de-
nounced as foolish when they tried to
urge it. In consequence, the disarma-
ment conference has turned out to be
the triumph Of collective hypocrisy.
Tongues In Cheeks.
The Germans made their obstinate
bid for an increased share of military
power while protesting with many
sinister reservations) that they did not
mean to use it SO as to overturn the
present territorial structure. Their
opponents held by the empty pretense
that they we're willing to allocate to
Germany at least a relative addition
reinforce her territorial claims-a
meaningless phrase, a contradiction In
terms On both sides people spoke
with their tongues in their cheeks.
On the American and on the British
side 1t has been maintained most stead
fastly that the impending ornaments
race could be prevented or kept within
bounds if France should agree, at the
price of cutting down its own national
defense, to induce Germany to pledge
herself not to develop her armed forces
beyond certain well defined limits, an
international control of all national
armaments making sure that the con-
tract would be faithfully observed by
all signatories. But nobody can really
believe nowadays that the interna-
tional control Of German ornaments
would work, and France is afraid lest
worse solution than a free race of ar
maments should befall her; disar-
mament of the French army taking
place simultaneously with q clandestine
unlimited rearmament Of Germany
In the near future the safeguarding
Cat least temporary Of European
peace is probably bound up with this:
VIII France, under the pressure Of
England and Italy. which by the
treaties of Locarno are joint glarantors
of her common frontier with rsarranv