Evening star., 1934-03-11
DISARMAMENT PARLEY
LIVES ONLY IN NAME;
U. S. REVISES POLICY
Continued From Third Page.l

l NSOHllItut;u fdPe.D
exploiting elements within the from
| tiers of that state They are not
making war an instrument of policy
but were destroying Austrian inde-
| pendence and thereby menacing the
| security of all neighboring states.
Thus it was apparent that arms and
only arms could in the end avail to
! halt a German offensive in Austria.
! 1t was also evident that the larger
the reduction Of the military resources
of the armed states the greater Ger
many'S chances of creating a new
Mitteleuropa. Accordingly when Capt.
Anthony Eden went on his recent
mournful round he found nothing
changed since Spring; the circum-
stances had worsened, the opposed
purposes had hardened, that was all.
OF course, in point of fact, the
British government, like the Ameri-
can administration, was perfectly well
aware that disarmament was dead.
Both would have preferred to have the
conference inferred decently and
quietly because for sanitary reasons
| Az AAeAN SSSOAAiS a HSAAAs boO e2AoI "oo
/ impossible because to adjourn it would
in effect have abolished all legal or
quasi-legal restraints upon Germany
And France could hold to the letter
of the bond until her demands were
satisfied
Roosevelt Changes Policy.
Nevertheless out OF the American
| fart did ii
practical purposes the Roosevelt ad-
ministration has at last backed out
Of the European mess. 1t Is still
ready to volunteer kind words and
sympathetic counsel, but it has not
| merely refrained from sending Nor
man Davis back to Europe to act as
ambassador at large, but 1t has also
| disclosed no intention of renewing its
promises of last Spring to modify its
neutral rights to serve the interests
of European state which had re-
duced its armaments materially and
thereafter been the victim of aggres-
| sion.
At long last. then, Mr.. Roosevelt has
| broken with the policy more or less
! imposed upon him by inheritance from
| the Hoover administration and en-
! ployed for it by Davis, who served
both masters with equal assiduity. 1t
was, moreover, the policy of attempt
ing to disarm Europe to suit Ameri-
can ideas Mr. Hoover could never
get over the belief that America had
some mystic authority to coerce Euro
peanS. In addition, he was always
| urging that war debts be used as
basis Of persuasion, never recognizing
that the war debts themselves we're
no longer taken seriously by the ma
| tions he sought to disarm. Precisely
! as long as We messed in the European
situation, however, the countries We
| urged to diSarm we're always quite
! properly asking us to insure them
| against possible evil consequences of
| our disarmament programs. Every
American project was therefore met
| by European proposal for guaran-
| tees, sanctions. responsibilities. AS
consequence, every American repre-
| sentative at the Disarmament Confer
ence found himself in a hopeless
| dilemma. On the other hand, he had
| to convince European statesmen that
| IN case of =criSiS the United States
| would do something positive against
an aggreSsor, and, on the other, he
| had similarly to reassure the United
States Senate that the administra-
| ton had undertaken no foreign COM
mltment. In practice Europe was
| naturally never satisfied and the
| United States Senate was always in
| state of alarm
To disarmament Mr.. Roosevelt has
| now made one positive contribution.
He has Scrapped Mr.. Davis. In doing
that he has removed the very real
danger that the outbreak of the new
war in Europe would see the Ameri-
can Government compelled to choose
between repudiating a moral, if not a
legal, obligation to become belliger-
ent and actually enlisting in the fray
at the outset. For a long time Mr..
Davis succeeded in creating the i'm
preston in this country that America
could dlsarm Europe without running
any risks itself. And he not less OBJ
| vlously sought to create the impress
sion in Europe that, while We would
not promise in advance to do any
thing, in case of crisis our action was
nevertheless insured. The upshot Of
all this was that while we were con-
trlbuting nothing to European dis
armament, which was always out of
the question. we were being dragged
useleSsly deeper and deeper into the
continental moraSs.
Nothing in the world could be more
fantastic than the spectacle presented
In recent months by the steady march
of Europe toward war and the frantic
efforts OF certain statesmen to get
something signed to wind up the dis
armament conference with an out
ward appearance of agreement. Every
one was to keep his guns, those who
were short of guns we're to make up
the deficiency, but everybody was to
deny that possession of guns had any,
thing but a peaceful implication.
That pious declaration was to be
hailed as an achievement in the in
terestS of peace.
Thus the disarmament conference
in its final stage has become a sham
and mere device of hypocrisy, a
place where every one has pretended
and where the real objective has not
been disarmament, but the attainment
of some advantage in the matter of
armaments. Our part in the per-
formance has never been particularly
praiseworthy, but the Presidents final
withdrawal from effective participa-
ton is at the least both a contribu-
ton to national security and recog-
milton of the futility of American
policy in the recent past.
Copyright. 1934J
paign goes on, to keep an eye on the
vast army of voters whose trend is to