Evening star., 1933-12-17
ITALY'S REFORM DEMAND
COMPLETES LEAGUE RUIN
Action of Fascist Grand Council Also
Avoids Break With Britain-U. S.
Facing Intense Propaganda.
BY FRANK II. SIMONDS.

BY FRANK ii. SIMONDS.
TINE action of the Grand Council
of the Fascists 10 days ago in
demanding a revolutionary re-
Il modelling of the League of Ma
tions as the price Of continued
italian membership Is interesting in
| two respects. On the one hand 1t
| completes the present ruin OF the
League itself and on the other it avoids
a complete break with Britain, step
the Italians necessarily must seek to
escape.
Reform of the League as the Italians
suggest would mean, in practice, de-
| priving it of all value as the agent of
what has come to be known as the
collective" method of assuring peace.
Articles x and XVI-the central points
in the great battle in the United States
All the machinery for action against
an aggressor would be scrapped.
Broadly speaking, the League would
then become two things: A place where
statesmen might meet, if they choose,
and an international organization for
dealing with such non-controversial
questions as white slavery, opium traf-
fic and the like. But since the states
ratify agreements which they had
already reached elsewhere, it would
actually have no importance wharso-
ever in the matter of conflicts between
nations.
In the long run it is hard to escape
the conviction that what the Italians
propose will prove the fate of the
League If anything is to be saved from
the present shipwreck. The secession
of Japan and Germany, the absence
Of the United States and Soviet Rus
sia, the obvious determination Of Italy
to have nothing to do with League
following the old model, takes five of
the seven great powers out OF the
Geneva combination.
Geneva Experiment Over.
Great Britain and France are left
with all the smaller states, but for these
two great powers to seek to act at
Geneva would only be 70 set up new
division in the world. No one could
imagine that if Germany invaded Po-
land or Poland attacked Germany, the
voice of the League would have any
authority or exercise any influence.
What the champions of the League
in the United States and Great Britain,
where the appeal of the League was
strongest on purely moral ground, have
now to face is that for all practical
purposes the experiment OF Geneva is
over. 1t has collapsed, like the prohibi-
ton adventure in the United States,
because it was unable to enlist the nee
essary public sentiment. Prohibition
was unenforceable because public opin-
ion from the start refused to obey the
law. The League was similarly exposed
] ~ Ia ,r-I,n foil 1nd n IQnnnncp
aggression in Asia or bring about dis
armament in Europe.
/ For France, on the other hand, the
| collapse of the League has a political
not a moral. significance. In Geneva
the French saw means OF insuring the
maintenance of the status quo created
by the peace treaties by the collective
| force of all nations. That status quo
was the law of Europe. 1t could only
be changed with the consent of ala
consent always sure to be lacking. But
any attempt to upset it by force was
an Illegal act and the international
police could be called out.
Ever since the League opened its
doors for business French effort has
been directed at providing adequate
police forces for the carrying out of the
Leagues decisions. Bit on the one
hand the Anglo-SaXon nations would
not supply that force which joined to
the French would have been sufficient
and on the other Germany clearly in
dicated her purpose to recover her lest
territories and Italy her unwillingness
to accept the existing order as per-
manent
Until the League is completely di-
vested of its nominal authority of pow
er at least to protest against aggrea-
sion, until all international functions
of real importance are taken from its
hands and vested in those of the great
powers, who will act from expediency
not from principle, Germany cannot
hope to act to recover her lost pro
vinces or unite with Austria without
being pronounced an aggreSSor. SINH
larly Italy cannot seek to improve her
situation in the world without running
afoul of the same legal and moral OBJ
stacle. So Italy and Germany have,
in effect, joined hands to abolish the
League.
Only Force In Equation.
For the British the collapse of the
League is a disaster because it gave
them a means of acting in Europe
without running any of the risks in
cident to alliances AS it collapSes they
will be faced with the unpleasant task
of taking sides in continental Quarrels.
They will have to stand with France
for the status quo or with Germany and
Italy for revision. But they can only
obtain concessions from France by in
creasing their guarantees of French Sc
curity and, failing concessions, only
dangerous deadlock can result
While the League lasted it was posi-
BILE to talk eloquently about moral guar
antees, about the force of world opinion
and the like. But now the single
question will be that of the military and
naval means to insure nations against
aggression if they consent to limitation
or even reduction of armaments. There
Is nothing left but force In the equa-
tion. And in that situation the British
will have to fish or cut bait, to give
guarantees or to abandon the idea OF
disarmament altogether and get ready
themselves for the next war.
AS the year closes, then, we are see
ing the end Of a period in postwar
history. The whole Wilsonian concep-
ton of peace has broken down. The
Anglo-Saxon conception, which was the
League, has failed to bring about en-
during peace and has collapsed in the
presence of the ever-growing danger
OF another general war. 1t has crumbled
because it was based upon the assump-
tion that the world had become inter-
national as result of the war and
visibly the world is more intensely ma
tional at the moment than even in 1914.
So far as one can see now France
will dig in on the Geneva front and
hold as long as she can. She will. thus,
perhaps, force a breach between Rome
and London because the British would
resent the italian withdrawal from the
semblance of life in Geneva. In any
event weak French cabinets such as
now seem assured for some time will
not dare to take a new stand. AS for
the present National government in