Evening star., 1933-05-28
PEACE STILL PRECARIOUS
FOR EUROPEAN NATIONS
Roosevelt Message and Hitler Address
Have Had Little Effect on Basic
Conditions.

greater value than that of a possible
preface TO new armistice.
For it is self-evident that, since the
nations whose present frontiers Ger
many means to change will not aban-
don lands and populations without
war and Germany will not surrender
her purpose to recover those lost prov
| inces the purposes OF the Germans on
the one hand and the French, Poles
and Czechs on the other, are and must
remain irreconciiable.
Revision Of Pole German boundaries
as Hitler demands would turn over to the
Reich upward of 2,500,000 people, of
whom more than 1000 900 are Poles
But in the light of the recent treatment
of the Jewish minority in the Reich
what would be the fate Of a new mi
nority? Again, revision through union
Of Austria with the Reich would prac-
| tically encircle Czechoslovakia and
leave 1t both economically and politi-
cally at the mercy of Germany. as Po-
land would also be, were the Corridor
suppressed.
In simple terms then, what has hap
pened Is that German offensive has
been repulsed. In the face of world
wide opposition, confronted by equally
hostile opinions in London and In
retreat as the Kaiser was forced to
withdraw in the Agadir time, as Brue-
ming and Curtius were compelled to re-
! treat in the Austro-German tariff affair
Of two years ago.
Want Treaty Revision.
But naturally neither Hitler nor his
fellow countrymen have abandoned
their purpose, which is to obtain treaty
rayicinY1
but they have not surrendered a pro-
gram. Peace in Europe in the larger
view remains just as precarious as it
was before either the American Presi-
dent or the German chancellor spoke,
for nothing has been changed in the
basic circumstances. Germany has con-
fessed her inability for the present to
obtain what she desires by the only
means possible. namely. arms. And for
the moment the parallel danger of a
preventive war, precipitated by coun-
tries whose unity and security avowed
! German purposes threaten, has been
momentarily allayed
If one might use a figure of speech,
what has happened Is not that peace
has been made, but that any army
which failed in its campaign has nee
| essarily gone into Winter quarters and
military operations are adjourned to an
other season. But the forces are in
presence, the opposing wills unshaken,
/ the certainty of new collision equally
clearly perceived in every European
! capital and-one may hope-in Wash
! lngton as well.
II Germany will not abandon her pur-
/ pose to recover her frontiers of 1914
war must come presently So long as
she persists in this purpose incidents
and crises must follow each other I'D to
the moment when a final affair again
precipitates the deluge. That was what
happened between 1905 and 1914. That
Is what seems to be happening now.
No matter how mildly Hitler now speaks
the statesmen Of France, Poland and
Czechoslovakia are bound to recall his
recent utterances and think accordingly
Effectively Disarmed.
| Obviously, what Hitler and his ad-
vlsers now recognize is that it is hopc-
less for Germany to undertake, either by
1orce or maneuver in conference, to at
tain their end. At home Germany is ef-
/ fectiVely If not completely disarmed.
/ Abroad she Is isolated A clash would
insure invasion and spell ruin to the
Nazl regime. What remains is to seek
domestic reorganization and abroad to
endeavor to divide the countries recently
4NdAiAICu dO lIl IllC Wal DfIlOQ.
| But in this atmosphere effective dis
armament Is utterly out of the question
whatever superficial accords may be made
at Geneva. Europe will stay armed so
long as the purposes of one nation men,
ace the unity and existence of others.
Physical disarmament Is out of the uues-
ton while political peace remains un-
achieved. The struggle over the treaty
OF Versailles will continue-that Hitler's
own speech made clear. Moreover, it Is
not difficult to see when the next Incl
dent will arrive. 1t will come precisely
at the moment that the Germans be-
heVe the present solidarity between
France and the Anglo-Saxon nations is
shaken and American and British SYM
pathy can again be enlisted for the Ger
man thesis of treaty revision.
1t is, too. great misfortune that the
bulk OF the American people are so in
Huerced by speeches, so impressed by
pacts, so taken by paper projects for
dlsamament that they close their ewes to
the basic fact in the European situa-
| ton, which is that a war of wills has
been in progress ever since 1873
struggle between the Germans resolved
TO revise and the French, Poles and
CZechs determined to maintain the
treaty of Versailles
That war of wills has at once domi-
mated and explained all that has oc-
Cured and it has intensified rather than
lessened in recent times. 1t can pro-
duce new war almost overnight, it can
endure for months. and even years,
without military encounters. But peace.
III any real sense, cannot be attained
until there is agreement between the
contending peoples. and of such agree
ment there is today not the smallest
promise.
Copyright. 1881