Evening star., 1934-06-24
By FRANK III. SIMONDS.


still recent visit of Hitler to
IL Venice and the dramatic
meeting between the two
great dictators of our contemporary
era lies the deeper question of whether
it marks a return by Europe to the
older conceptions of the balance Of
power and of the concert of Europe,
which were abolished when Woodrow
Wilson attempted to substitute the
principle Of self-determination for the
former and the machinery Of the
League for the latter
The doctrine of the balance Of
power was the principle upon which
Europe was organized nearly three
centuries before the World War and
under which it lived from the Thirty
Years War to the still recent conflict.
1t briefly dictated that no single great
power Of Europe should be permitted
to acquire position so disproportion-
ately strong as to enable it to seek
continental hegemony. 1t had been
invoked by Europe against Louis XIV
and Napoleon, expressed in the SETTLE
ment of 1915 and observed in prac-
tice from Waterloo to the Marne.
When woodrow Wilson proposed in
the fourteen points to substitute the
principle of self-determination, he
thereby shattered the European bal
ance of power. for there were in Gen.
trail Europe in the old German En-
pire and the Hapsburg Monarchy not
less than seventy-five millions of Ger
mans. If those were permitted to
unite, the state thus created would be
the most powerful on the continent
and capable of dominating it, for
France and Italy each counted but
forty millions of people, Russia had
fallen away to Bolshevism America
was going home and Britain was she'll
shocked and ready to disregard
European issues.
Old Issue Arises.
BY the settlement of Paris, such
union was forbidden Austria was es-
tablished as an Independent republic
and its seven millions of Germans
we're formally forbidden to unite with
the Reich, as they then desired.
Three millions Of other Austrian Ger
mans were transferred to the Czecho-
slovak Republic-also against their
will. Thus, in spirit, at least, the
promise extended to the German
people of the right to exercise self
determination was broken and the
treaty of Versailles violated the
pledge of the armistice.
This transfer of the Germans, this
dispersal Of them amongst three
states did not, however, settle the is
sue. On the contrary. with the ar
rival Of Hitler, and the renewal Of
Germany's demand for the Anschluss
and of the Austrian request for union
with the Reich, the old question was
posed again in the same terms as in
1919 at the Peace Conference. And
it pends today.
In the face of this obvious menace
to the balance of power in Europe,
which is heightened by the German
program of ethnic unifcation, Europe
has been reacting in traditional
fashion. Communistic Russia and
Democratic France have reached an
understanding. The Little Entente
has joined the Franco-Russian bloc.
Finally, in the face of the peril to
Italy, Mussolini has mounted guard
on Austrian independence and rela-
tions between Rome and Paris have
visibly improved.
A circle has thus been drawn about
Germany-a circle of steel. Ever
since the coming of Hitler, however
Mussolini has been trying to meet the
growing danger Of actual war by re-
viving the concert of Europe. That
instrument functioned, not always
successfully. but often benef1cially,
from 1915 to 1854 and from 1873 to
1914; that is, during all the time
from the fall of Napoleon to the COM
ing Of the World War, save for the
quarter of century between the
Crimean and Franco-Prussian wars
when the great powers engaged in
series of wars with each other and the
concert lapsed.
This concert was no more than
council of the five great powers of
Europe to whose number Italy was
added after 1870. Its purpose was to
prevent conflict between the great
powers by avoiding an open clash be-
tween their purposes and policies. Its
great achievement was the Berlin
Congress of 1878. but as late as the
Winter of 1918 it prevented a war
between the great powers provoked by
the Balkan conflicts of 1912 and 1918.
In 1914, although Sir Edward Grey
tried to employ it, he failed because
the powers were again as hopelessly
divided as in 1854.
After the war, woodrow Wilson
undertook through his League of Ma
tions to substitute world council for
a European and to admit the small
"a tn
council table. Today. however the
Geneva body is powerless because not
less than four of the seven great pow
ers are not members. and fifth,
Italy, is hostile. With the United
States, Soviet Russia, Japan and Ger
many out and Italy not a participat-
ing member, the League has thus
broken down.
MussoIini Plan Broken.
As early as March, 1888, when
Ramsay Macdonald few to Rome in
the hope of ending the first war scare
the triumph of Hitler precipitated,
Mussolini unfolded to him a plan for
a concert of Ihe four great powers Of
Western Europe - namely. Britain,
France, Germany and Italy-to deal
WILL tL1C CAAoIAIlS CAAoAo' AAl4 U1dS.
Donald momentarily played with the
idea. But on his return to London he
found British opinion hostile.
The French, however, were RESPONSE
Bile for sitting the plan. Their oppo-
sition was due, on the one hand to
an unwillingness to expose themselves
to German Italian coercion in four
handed game in which British sup
port was uncertain, and on the other
to the opposition of their small allies,
who saw themselves called upon to
pay the costs of reconciling Germany.
Today, in the light of recent events
the situation has largely changed in
one respect. France and Russia have
become allies and Russia would GER
tainly claim and probably receive a
seat in such a concert Polish claims
have also been pressed and might con-
ceivably be honored In any event.
the concert would have five, and not
four, members, as Mussolini originally
proposed and France could not be