Evening star., 1934-02-18
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

WHICH Will uUuUIltSS Ut ue-
ecribed in history as the February
Revolution the similar events of
1880 we're labeled the July Revolu-
tion-tWo things are already fairly
clear. In the first place, France is to
have a strong" government. In the
second, the government which is
strong at home is almost as certain
10 be determined in its actions abroad
Now the brutal fact is that the new
French cabinet faces a situation in
which, by reason Of the weakness Of
the recent government supported by
Socialists and Radicals, the French
position in Europe has pra ctically col
hpsed France has already lost her
Polish ally and is on the point of
losing her partners of the Little
Entente In a word, she now faces the
immediate prospect Of isolation in
Europe and the eventual likelihood of
having to defend herself singlehanded
against a triumphant and enormously
expanded new Germany.
Fifteen years after the armistice,
therefore, the Germans, under the
leadership of Adolf Hitler, are on the
point of winning the World War. Such
Q victory can only be prevented if
FTance-irreSpective of her former
British and Italian allies and with only
the certain aid of Rumania, Czecho-
Slovakia and Observation-Disclosures to
make German action in Austria
casus belli and is ready to march into
Germany with the coming of Spring.
War of Prevention.
Such a war of prevention was
assured, in my judgment, by the re-
cent February Revolution. To ap-
preciate the reasons for this one need
only analyze the consequences for
France of failure to act. At the
outset, too, it must be noted that the
appeal of Austria to the League of
Nations will give France the moral
and legal warrant to act if Geneva
remains passive and repeats the Man
ehurian fiaScO.
If, moreover France permits the
Austrian appeal to go unanswered the
result will be one of two things:
Either German mastery in Vienna will
be assured within a month after the
failure of Geneva, or the Little En-
tente, throwing off its French alliance
and uniting with Italy, will share with
MusSolini in an occupation of Austria.
And the consequence of such develop
knentS would, in turn, be that Italy
would replace France in Central
Europe.
Such action on the part of the
Little Entente is not mere fantastic
dream. On the contrary, it is already
preparing In fact, if Daladier and
his cartel cabinet, supported only by
the Socialists and Radicals, had sur
vived in Paris, it would have come
about inevitably Moreover, it was
despair Of any real support from such
q French government which at least
contributed nightly to the recent de-
eision of Pilsudski to make a sepa-
rate bargain with Berlin, thus break
ing up the old French bloc in Central
and Eastern Europe, which had sur
rived intact from the early postwar
days.
Appeal TO Mussolini.
Despairing of France the Little !
Entente will go to Italy. If Musso. |
hni in turn fails them, then they will |
90 separately to Berlin, make such
terms as they can with Hitler, and
at a single stroke the supremacy of
German policy from the Baltic to the
Black Sea and from the Rhine to
the Carpathians will be assured. And
when he has completed German re-
armament and at least begun the
economic consolidation of this new
Nitteleuropa, Hitler can turn to the
task Of dealing with Poland, Italy and
France in his own time and way.
What is not yet sufficiently plain
tn the United States is that in one
brief year Hitler has overturned the
whole European apple cart. He has
consolidated his domestic position,
smashed the League of Nations and
Che Disarmament Conference, assert
ed and applied his claim to rf"rma-
ment at the French level, broken up
the coalition Of great powers Which |
Defeated Germany in the World War
and separated France and Poland,
thus demolishing the system OF al
fances stretched about the Reich in
the postwar years.
In addition Hitler has scared the
British out of Europe. A weak and
divided British cabinet with a paci-
fst at its head and foreign min
tster whose single concern is to avoid
action, has succeeded in reducing
British influence to the vanishing
point and on every decisive occasion
Ia encouraging either Japan or Ger
many in their militaristic or i'm
perialstic purposes. So far as Hit
Ter is concerned, only a few brief
operations are needed to give him a
position in Europe no man has held
Hnce Napoleon fell.
New Empire.
II France and the Little Entente,
Or Italy and the Little Entente, or
France, Italy and the Little Entente
all together do not act within the
next few weeks, nrst by serving an
ultimatum upon Germany and second
by proceeding to enforce that ulti-
matum by armed intervention. then
nothing seems available to prevent
the creation of new and dominat-
ing German empire. controlled by
Hitler and his associates and inspired
by a nationalistic spirit almost path
illogical in its nature.
Thus, if the first business of the
new government in France is to re-
store domestic order, the second is
inevitably to re-establish not only
French influence but French security
as well on the continent. For what
Eitler is undertaking is to repeat the
Rismarckian episode on far more
colossal scale. Bismarck precipitated
three wars to achieve the unity of
She Fohenzollen empire, one with
Denmark, another with Austria and
third with France. At the same
time he successfully kept the several
interested nations apart, and was
able to deal with them in order.
Austria is Hitler's Denmark. In
his mind Czechoslokavia is what Aus
tria was TO Bismarck in 1866. Be-
yond lies the eventual war with
France which runs through the whole
story Of his own book, now become
the political bible of the Nazis. He
has gotten Poland out of the way. #