The Washington times., 1934-03-09
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There Is still no bridge across
the Danube below Budapest.
There is no bridge because the
nations on each side always dis
trusted each other so much that
they preferred the river between
them.
Today the distrust is not dead,
but the bridges Of international
politics-treaties Of non-aggres-
sion-are being signed with be-
wildering rapidity in this part Of
the world. .
"Pactomania" is what they call
it in Geneva. League of Nations
circles dislike it because it means
that Europe has given up hope
that the League can be effective
in preserving peace.
AS the League crumbled, first
one nation and then another set
hastily about the task of making
it's own individual treaties with
its neighbors.
When Hitler came to power
and Germany left the League,
this movement accelerated until
today the diplomatic scene IN
Europe is dominated by foreign
ministers rushing from one cap
ital to another, seizing other for
eign ministers by the hand. and
saying:
Lets promise not to fight"
GOT THEIR PLEDGES
The Soviet Union started it.
She has always been in fear Of
attack because Lenin taught that
the capitalist world would not
permit a Socialist state to live.
Today, Japan has made Rus
sia's theoretical anxiety a very
real one.
Driven by desire to protect her
back, the Soviet Union, through
the astute Maxim Litvinoft, hur-
riedly made treaties with all her
western neighbors.
From Finland, Esthonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and even from
Rumania, she obtained the pledge
not to fight.
The Russian counter promise
to Rumania meant in fact that
she surrendered her claim to
Bessarabia, which Rumania had
snatched while the Bolsheviks
were busy with their revolution.
Bessarabia is another one-time
war scare that has passed COM
pletely out.
Same AS In 1914
Hitler's coming drove France
into the Soviet camp. France had
been divided from Russia by the
old quarrel over the Czarist debts
Moscow had previously been
most friendly with Berlin.
One glance at Nazi Germany
sufficed to bring Moscow and
Paris together.
They pacted also, and though
their friendship is not yet com
parable to the old alliance of Paris
with st. Petersburg, the lineup OF
the Great Powers in Europe in
1884 is almost identical with the
lineup in 1914.
France, Russia, England, stand
in sympathy at least against Ger
many while Italy plays the unde
cided role.
Now the Pactomania has spread
to the Balkans.
first came the action of the Lit
tie Entente in the spring Of last
veal when Czechoslovakia, Ru
mania and Jugoslavia consolidated
their front and announced that
henceforth no one of them would
take any political action without
the others.
Greeks and Turks
The clever Tewfik Rushdi Bey
of Turkey and the shrewd Max
limos of Greece led the way by
signing a pact of non-aggressior
and friendship last September, ar
act that was far too little noticed
in the western World.
It signified once more than two
lifelong enemies, divided by cen
lures Of hostility, had made UP
their differences, and that one
more possibility of war had dis
appeared.
Today the same two statesmen
have launched the most preten
tious of all the Balkan pacts, g
pact to include all the Balkan
states, to make them all swear
eternal friendship for every other
one, and promise non-aggression
Turkey, Greece. Rumania, anc
Jugoslavia are the principal par
ticipators. But what they most
want is to get Bulgaria in. Bull
garia on the other hand insists
she will not enter if the pact con