Evening star., 1934-01-21

L the differences OF reugl0n or OF
public and private ethics be-
tween one country and another. They
always acted upon the principle that
the lines upon which national interests
developed ought not to be affected to
any material degree by events occur
ring within the radius of home policy
in other lands.
Upon the basis Of that rule. when the
idea of the Holy Roman Empire finally
broke down. and the striving for the
balance of power and alliances became
the motto of Italian and French diplo.
macy. the French King. Francis |. DID
not hesitate to call the Turks to the
rescue against the predominant Ger
man-Spanish dynasty. And. hundred
wears later, Cardinal Richelieu. the bold
and IRON -willed minister of Louis XIII,
was not reluctant to join hands with
the Lutheran princes beyond the Rhlne.
From then until the French Revolu-
ton the game of the European caolnetS
went on without the least attention to
the regimes in force in the different
regions of the continent. However the
revolutionary outbreak at the end OF
the eighteenth century called malt IN
that state of affairs because the prln-
ciple of kingly power, or the personal
solidarity of all the Sovereigns, was re-
duced to nought by the infuriated mob
in Paris.
For a while the Napoleonic conquest
blurred out. in the coalition which was
formed against France. all the lines OF
demarcation which separated "parlla-
mentary England" from the despotic
Russian and PruSsian forms of govern.
ment. But from the peace treatleS OF
1915 To the end of the nineteenth cen
turv there was a strong tendency IN
liberal England and liberal France to
associate against the holy alliance" OF
the three Emperors" Only in 1892,
when the Franco-Russian alliance was
concluded against Germany and. in
1907, when the British-R Russian entente
was formed. did the diplomats mdl1-
ference to the internal evolution OF the
various states again come fully into
its own.
Wilson Revives Idea.
During the Paris negotiations OF 1919
President Wilson revived the loea tlldV
democratic institutions were TO De re-
garded everywhere as a guaranty Oh
international peace-an axiom lnat IL
is rather difficult for any student OF MS
tory to accept; for in the whole record
of mankind no wars have been so cosby
in blood and money as those WHICH
have run their courses since the supreme
power was vested in the interests ano
the passions of the crowd. On tnaI
ground, however, Germany was lllouGeo
to provide herself with the parlla-
mentary constitution of Weimar. She
conformed to the suggestion in the nope
that she might thus secure a Hliloel
enforcement of the treaties. But very
soon the French, at any rate, had 70
realize that even under the garments OF
a full -fedged republic German poiicy
of revenge was asserting ltSell' tiat
neither the WilhelmstrasSe nor tne
Reichswehr had parted for good ana all
with the Prussian tradition.
Therefore hardly any protest was
raised in 1925 when DR.. Stresemann
allowed the Crown Prince to return 10
Germany, or when, from July, 1851, on
ward. q virtual dictatorship was SET up
in Berlin. Then, the restoration OF tlie
Hohenzollern throne, II 1t had Deen
brought about, would have found unlVer-
sal liberation. 1t was commonly recog !.
nized that to rely upon the creatlon oI
a parliamentary government Tor tne
maintenance of peace was nothing more
than a delusion; that the nationalist
impulse was not likely to be seriously
affected by changes in the internal
structure of the political regime.
Thereupon the Hitlerian state mas
gradually been built up. Looking pack
upon the Transformation of the German
people within the brief span of one
wear, we have to admit that whereas
there is not much to choose between an
old-fashioned empire and an old
fashioned republic, as far as foreign
policy is concerned, things go differently
when such regimes as the National
Socialist in Germany or the Communist
in Russia bring about fundamental
revolutions in the modes Of life, private
as well as public, of their subjects. Up
until few years ago, Britons, French
and Germans, Notwithstanding all the
controversies that ragged among them.
held in common a good many ideas and
habits. For instance, they all took the
| freedom of individual development for
granted and believed that the business
of any government was to make it posi-
| BILE.
| OF course, it was admitted that the
government had to come in so as to
prevent the selected few from oppress-
ing the mass Of the people, but limits